Going into Friday and Saturday's Emory National Invitational, the volleyball team had not traveled outside of New England all season. In fact, the team that went down to Georgia this past weekend was the first Tufts volleyball team to travel to a tournament in another region.
The trip was just one step in Coach Cora Thompson's efforts to build up the Tufts volleyball program.
"Tufts volleyball has never been known as a consistent powerhouse team in New England," Thompson said.
With a talented roster and four straight winning seasons, Thompson is trying to change that reputation. Thompson said she believes the Jumbos have to face the best teams they can whenever possible. Since taking over as coach, Thompson has used the regular season as an opportunity to challenge her team.
She created the Tufts Invitational Tournament last year, and this year she used the tournament to bring in multiple Top 25 teams.
"Part of [establishing the Tufts program as a powerhouse] is playing the toughest teams in New England as often as possible," Thompson said.
Next Thompson wanted to give her team a chance to play some of the best teams in the country.
"We want to find the best competition from other regions so that we can challenge ourselves," Thompson said.
The Jumbos got to play teams that they haven't seen before. Some of those teams represented the class of the South and the Midwest. On Saturday, the Jumbos played Millikin University (Ill.), which has received votes for the Top 25, and Emory University, the No. 3 team in the nation.
As the only team from New England represented at the tournament, the Jumbos saw it as an opportunity to show the other schools the strength of the region.
"It was good to show the other teams how good our conference is and put New England out there," freshman Natalie Goldstein said.
Although the Jumbos were 2-2 in the tournament and could not knock off Emory or Millikin, Thompson said she felt that the tournament got the team's name out.
"We absolutely gained respect for our program as well as for New England," Thompson said.
The trip was also a chance for the team to continue to gel and improve its chemistry.
"I love traveling with the team," Goldstein said. "It was a really good bonding experience."
Although the players spent much of the day playing volleyball, they had Friday and Saturday night free to go out to dinner.
"It was the south; life is slow-paced and mellow, the weather was warm and gorgeous, and the scenery was amazing," Thompson, a west-coaster transplanted in New England, said. "The accents were neat, and overall it was just great to break our season up with a little bit of southern hospitality."
