Men’s Tennis split up this weekend as seniors Amar Tahirovic ’26 and Brendan McDonald ’26 competed in San Diego, Ca. at the coveted ITA Conference Masters Championships to work for a bid to the NCAA Championships. Tahirovic competed in singles alone and in doubles with McDonald, where the pair made it all the way to the semifinals. At the same time, underclassmen duo Will Robinson ’27 and Tyler Bush ’29 traveled out east to the Navy Invitational. The two defeated a pair from James Madison and went 2-1 for the weekend. The Bison overall went 9-6 in singles and 3-3 in doubles in Maryland.
“It is very difficult splitting up the team,” Head Coach Jason Cohen shared. “In a way it’s a privilege because our team has done so well that we’ve had players qualify for national level events, but the logistics are certainly challenging since I do not have an assistant and I can’t be in San Diego and Annapolis at the same time.”
Tahirovic and McDonald shone under the California sun as the duo won their first three doubles matches of the weekend together, pushing them to the semifinals on Saturday. There, they lost their streak to the No. 2 seed from Middle Tennessee. However, they still had a chance for an NCAA doubles bid, as the top three teams received bids. The Bison now had to play the No. 5 seed from Rice on Sunday for a last-ditch effort to qualify. Ultimately, Tahirovic and McDonald took their second loss of the weekend, finishing fourth overall in the tournament.
“This year’s masters tournament was a dream run.” McDonald said. “Me and Amar had competed in the tournament last year and unfortunately lost early. This year we had some more experience as partners and were able to put that together when it mattered.”
McDonald was also the recipient of the ITA Sportsmanship Award over the weekend. “I always try to bring the same attitude on and off the court. The tournament directors, staff and trainers did a great job this week, so being recognized by them means a lot,” he shared.
The Bison are done with their fall season and now wait until their spring opener, which will be announced soon. “We mostly had a pretty good fall but we still have a lot of work to do to be where we want to be at the end of the spring season.” Coach Cohen said. “The fall is helpful to figure out what we need to work on over the winter and into January. We did play a lot of tough competition this fall in our tournaments, which will help prepare us as we have a really challenging schedule this spring.”
