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Teams: Men's Tennis: Team
Overview
Tufts University Men's Tennis has long been one of the most
outstanding programs in Division III. The team plays a very
competitive schedule as a member of the New England Small College
Athletic Conference (NESCAC), perhaps the premier conference in the
country.
For many years Tufts was a dominant force in Division III and would
have qualified for the NCAA Championships, but NESCAC rules
disallowed teams to participate in NCAA events until 1994. Since
then, the Jumbos have regularly been ranked among the top 25 teams
in the nation and have made NCAA playoff appearances six times. In
recent years, players Brian Nurenberg, Adam DeMezza, David
Ruttenberg and Rifat Perahya have represented Tufts at least twice
at the NCAA's in singles and doubles competition. Perahya and
Ruttenberg were All-Americans.
In the 1980s, Tufts was the dominant team in New England, winning
conference titles in 1984, 1986 and 1989. Several players qualified
for the NCAA singles or doubles championships during the decade.
Some of those Jumbo teams may have been among the top five in the
nation had team participation in the NCAA Tournament been allowed by
NESCAC.
Last year, Tufts finished 20th nationally in Division III and earned
impressive wins over nationally-ranked Trinity, Bates and Colby. A
narrow loss at Bowdoin had the team just miss out on a top 10
ranking. The Jumbos had a record of 7-5 with a highest national
ranking of 17th and Northeast regional ranking of fifth.
For 2007-08, the expected strength of the team will be depth again.
Senior captain Will Fleder and junior Vinh Tran lead the
upperclassmen returning to the varsity. The sophomore class includes
talented players Andrew Rosen, who led the team in wins a year ago,
Jon Trott, Bryan Wilner and Daniel Landers.
The NESCAC is a group of highly selective liberal arts colleges and
universities that share an academics-first philosophy for
intercollegiate athletics. The Tufts program has matched its
competitive successes with academic achievement. Seven members of
the team were voted Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA)
Scholar-Athletes in 2007, following a nation-high eight recipients
in 2006. The 2007 Jumbos were an ITA All-Academic team for the
seventh straight year.
The Tufts tennis team has split seasons in the fall and spring. In
the fall, the team will compete in a few dual matches, the ITA
Regional Championships and the Wallach Invitational at Bates. Most
head-to-head dual matches, the NESCAC championships and NCAA
competition take place in the spring. The team practices five or six
days per week in the afternoons. Off-court training is twice per
week during the season and three times per week between seasons.
Located right outside of Boston, Tufts offers a well-rounded
collegiate experience to student-athletes. Within its picturesque
small-college campus, Tufts is a major university with "an
unprecedented diversity of programs, exceptional faculty and bright
and talented students," according to President Lawrence S. Bacow.
The Athletics Department sponsors a varsity program of 28 sports
that is among the most competitive in the NCAA's Division III. Tufts
finished sixth in the 2006 U.S. Directors' Cup, the award presented
annually to the best overall collegiate athletics program in the
country. The University's proximity to a world-class city renowned
for its academic institutions is also a major draw.
Recent Tufts Tennis graduates have moved on to successful careers
and lives. About two-thirds go on to graduate school, medical
school, law school or business school. The rest often establish
successful careers in high tech or financial business.
Doug Eng, EdD PhD, has coached at Tufts for 12 years. In 2004-05, he
was head coach of the women's team which produced Tufts' first two
All-Americans and a record seven All-Conference players. Last year,
Eng took over the men's team. He also coaches the squash teams at
Tufts. Eng's areas of expertise are in biomechanics, coaching theory
and sports psychology. He has spoken at every major tennis
conference in the United States and has won several national awards
including Pro of the Year by the Professional Tennis Registry (PTR)
and the US Professional Tennis Association (USPTA).
Eng is a PTR national clinician who has trained or certified over
1,000 coaches. He was a past Chair of the USA Tennis New England
Sports Science Committee. He competed USTA High Performance Training
and has worked with dozens of ranked juniors. In the past eight
summers, he has directed programs at the Tennis Camps at Harvard
University.
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