After qualifying for the USTA National Campus Championship for the first time in its history, the club tennis team took full advantage of its long weekend of play in Cary, N.C., by competing and winning matches against Div. I and Div. II opponents.
Tufts finished 10th in the tournament's bronze division and 42nd overall, going a respectable 3-4 in weekend play.
"Our expectations coming in were fairly low," senior captain Joshua Lund-Wilde said. "We knew that we were underdogs, but we did expect to get some wins against teams. I really think we accomplished that."
Tufts began the tournament in Pool M with three round-robin matches. After two blowout losses to Penn State and Arizona, which finished 12th and 19th in the tournament, respectively, Tufts topped William & Mary, 24-22, to pick up its first win of the weekend and qualify for the bronze division — made up of the 16 teams that finished in third place in their respective pools.
In the bronze division playoffs on Friday morning, Tufts fell to Texas State University, which went on to take third in the bracket. Despite the loss, the Jumbos still remained optimistic that they could improve their finishing position by winning matches in the group's backdraw.
Those hopes came to fruition for Lund-Wilde and the Jumbos after a close victory against North Dakota State and a blowout of Utah Valley. But their run ended with a 26-21 loss in the bronze division's ninth-place game to the University of Washington.
"The whole weekend was a fantastic opportunity. We showed that we can hang with almost anyone in the nation," Lund-Wilde said. "Tufts has something special that maybe not a lot of other Div. III schools have."
