While spring teams such as men's lacrosse and sailing have already begun their 2013 campaigns, the majority of the Jumbos will officially kick off competition over the spring break.
Baseball, tennis and track and field will all travel to regular season events around the country, while the crew and golf teams will continue to prepare for their return to competition in early April.
Baseball
Tufts baseball will start its season with a jam-packed trip to North Carolina and Virginia next week. While the Jumbos are coming off a 22-12 season in 2012, the team finished only 4-8 in the East Division of the NESCAC, good for second-to-last place.
This year, however, the young group will look to improve on that record, and are optimistic that their extensive trip down south, which features games against nine teams from across the country, will get the season started off on a positive note.
The Jumbos will open against Castelton State on Friday and will continue through the trip playing Guilford, Averett, Greensboro, Methodist and UNC Wesleyan, followed by a trip to Virginia Beach.
"We get the opportunity to play a bunch of very well-respected and well-coached programs," senior tri-captain outfielder Eric Weikert said in an email to the Daily. "[It's] always a great experience. The spring trip encompasses everything baseball and is something I really look forward to - it's the ultimate way to kick off the start of the baseball season."
Men's Tennis
The tennis team will take a far different route over the break, as they begin with a dual match at Brandeis on Saturday, March 16 for their first match of the season before traveling across the country to California to take on five different teams.
The Jumbos will visit Chapman University in Orange, Calif. on March 19 and then proceed to the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps campus the following day to face a familiar NESCAC foe, the Amherst Lord Jeffs. This matchup will be crucial for the team to start out both the NESCAC and regular season on a high note.
While at the Claremont Colleges, Tufts will also take on the Pomona-PitzerSagehens.
Following this matchup, the Jumbos will travel to Los Angeles to square off against Occidental College, and will cap off the extensive week of play with a battle against local opponent Babson College on March 22 back at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.
Men's Track and Field
Unlike the other teams competing in April and May, the Tufts men's track and field squad will flow seamlessly from the winter into the spring season.
After finishing the winter season at the NCAA Championships with a 14th-place finish at North Central in Illinois, the team will now travel to Washington and Lee on the second weekend of break for the W&L-VMI Carnival.
The team will then host the Snowflake Classic on March 30.
Sailing
After an impressive fall season for the Tufts co-ed sailing program, in which they won the ICSA Match Racing Championship for the first time in school history, the team is back at it this spring with 13 races already under its belt.
The Jumbos finished seventh in a field of 16 teams at the Graham Hall Team Race on March 3 at Navy, as well as 6th of eight at the Sharpe Trophy race at Harvard.
For the spring recess, the Tufts team will travel back to Navy for two events over the course of the week: the TruxtunUmsted Trophy on March 16 and 17, and the Owen, Mosbacher, & Knapp Trophies on March 23 and 24.
These competitions will serve to prepare the Jumbos for their trip to Connecticut the following weekend at the Southern New England Team Race Intersectional.
Men's Lacrosse
The men's lacrosse team will continue its search for its first win of the season after dropping games to Hamilton and Conn. College earlier this week.
However, the competition will only get more difficult over the break. Tufts will first face No. 4 Stevens Tech. when they travel to Hoboken, N.J. tomorrow, followed by a face off against the No. 2 Stevenson Mustangs in Maryland on March 19.
After Tufts travels north to face NESCAC opponent Colby on Friday, March 22, the string of spring break games will end at home for the Jumbos when they take on No. 14 Western New England University March 24.
Tufts will have its full lineup at its disposal, just in time for what will be their most strenuous week of play all season.
