Bucknell Men’s Tennis went 1-1 this weekend, starting with a strong win over Drexel, despite being down 3-1.
The match began with Drexel quickly taking the doubles point, winning two of the three doubles matches, putting the Bison down 1-0. The Bison were able to pull a doubles win in the No. 2 match, Oscar Bain Moreno de Vega ’26 and Adam Stavrakas ’26 won 6-4.
In the singles, Stavrakas was able to secure a 6-0, 6-1 win at the No. 2 spot, but the Drexel Dragons were able to grab the No. 4 and 6 matches, putting them up 3-1 heading into the final three games.
Despite the pressure, all three remaining Bison were able to secure a win.
At the No. 5 spot, Tim Zelikovsky ’24 grabbed a 7-5, 6-2 decision, which was his eighth straight singles win. In the first spot, Amar Tahirovic ’26 took a 6-4, 7-5 win, and finally, in the No. 3 spot, Bain won a second set tiebreaker.
Following their win, the Bison headed to Annapolis to take on Navy. After their match against Drexel, the team felt confident they could perform against the Midshipmen. However, they fell short, losing 5-2.
“Beating Drexel was a good segue into playing Navy. We wanted the doubles point in both Drexel and Navy, but we also knew that our singles were strong enough to win the match,” Zelikovsky said.
Navy secured the doubles point by winning all three doubles matches.
As for the singles, Tahirovic won 7-6, 1-6, 6-4 at the No. 1 singles position, and Liam Kilmer ’27 won 6-3, 6-4 at the No. 4 spot, earning the Orange and Blue two points. The rest of the singles matches were lost to Navy, though Stavrakas and Zelikovsky held on long enough to go to three sets.
“[Tahirovic] and [Kilmer] gave us each a singles point against Navy, and I was only a point away from winning my singles match. We were right there with them, and they know it too. We will be putting in as much work and practice as possible to ensure that we’re ready to beat Navy in the upcoming Patriot League tournament,” Zelikovsky said.
Bucknell competes this Saturday against Lehigh at 1 p.m. and against Lafayette Sunday at 1 p.m., both at home.
