The Tufts E-Men came out strong at their first tournament of the season, but only managed to notch a .500 record as they defeated three of the six teams they faced. The Atlantis Tournament was held in Salisbury, Maryland on Feb. 26 and 27 and, despite the average record, Tufts displayed the strength that enabled them to reach Nationals last year.
On the first day of the tournament, the team beat Salisbury University 14-12, but lost in close matches to both the University of Pennsylvania 13-9 and Rutgers University 10-9. The next day brought better luck, however, as the E-Men routed the United States Naval Academy 15-8 and St. Mary's College of Maryland 11-3.
In the tournament's quarterfinals, Williams College defeated Tufts 9-6 to eliminate the E-Men.
Tufts was one of 32 schools invited to the Atlantis Tournament, with opponents ranging from nearby Northeastern University to as far west as Michigan State University. Williams would ultimately win the tournament championship, after successfully defeating Carnegie-Mellon University in the finals by a score of 15-8.
As the season continues, the E-Men look ahead to the College Southerns Tournament which will be held in Statesboro, Georgia on Mar. 19, 2005. As a club team, the E-men must pay their own travel fees for trips such as this one.
Deeper in the season, the Yale Cup will be held a little closer to home in New Haven, Connecticut on Apr. 9 and 10 and will be another important venture for the E-Men.
The top 16 teams in the nation earn a berth to the Ultimate Players Association's National Championships. The UPA has yet to come out with any 2005 rankings, but Tufts did qualify for last year's tournament and finished with a composite ninth/10th place finish.
"We lost nine seniors but have a strong team coming back and a very good chance of making nationals again," sophomore Chris Skipper said.
The past five years, the road to Nationals has consisted of wins at the Metro Boston Section, including victories over rivals Harvard and MIT. From there, appearances in the regional tournament propelled the E-Men to Nationals.
Tufts is currently ranked 54th out of 222 teams based on the RRI rankings, which take into account schedule strength and margin of victory or defeat, but these rankings are based only on the first six games of the season and are relatively obsolete at this point.
The ultimate team is divided into the A team and B team. Members of both squads will be traveling to Georgia for spring break.
The B team held an indoor scrimmage last Saturday against Harvard, and, according to senior captain Sam Kortz, the team is beginning to come together.
"From our first scrimmage there are number of things we did well and others that we need to improve on," said sophomore Jesse McCormick, a member of the B team, "but I'm confident we will get to where we want to be."
Following the College Southerns, both teams will head to Tybee Island in Georgia where the A team will hold daily practices and the B team will attend the High Tide.
The team finished with a 33-8 record last year, so this season's 3-3 start comes as something of a disappointment, but the season is still young and the E-Men look forward to continuing last season's performance.
"It's early in the season, and most of the teams we played are peaking early," Skipper said. "We have a lot of potential, and in a couple of months we should be on top again and peaking where we should be."
- David Pomerantz contributed to this article.
