Just four years after the club tennis team was recognized by the Athletics Department, it has made its way to the sport's biggest stage.
Seven Jumbos traveled to Cary, N.C., yesterday and will compete today through Saturday at the USTA Tennis On Campus National Championship.
Though the team missed out on an automatic berth by finishing outside the top three at the New England sectional tournament this October, Tufts applied to a national lottery and got a wildcard into the 64-team draw, senior captain Joshua Lund-Wilde said.
Despite the team's underdog status, it has plans to make some noise on the national scene.
"Even during the sectional tournament we pulled a bunch of upsets because no one's taking us seriously," Lund-Wilde said. " I expect us to pull some upsets early and have a good time."
Tufts will compete in a round-robin pool play today against the University of Arizona, Penn State and William and Mary. Based on today's results, the team will be assigned a single-elimination bracket.
"Our goal is just to finish as high as we can in our pool, to get maybe second or third, and then to get as far in the bracket as we can," Lund-Wilde said.
