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Nick DeGoede’s story is an all too familiar one: a standout junior level tennis player from California whose grades impressed Division I schools more than his game. So instead of taking his 110-mph serve and overpowering game to a smaller school, he brought them to UCLA, accepting the fact that they would probably lose out to academic coursework.

“I pretty much wanted a good all-around institution and didn’t want to leave California,” the Fresno native said. “I didn’t actively pursue playing collegiate tennis.”

Needless to say, when he enrolled at UCLA last fall, he didn’t expect to be competing for a national championship in Daytona Beach. But that’s exactly where he and six other Bruins found themselves this past weekend.

With UCLA’s Division I tennis program vying for a national championship just about every year, the leftover talent has organized itself into what is becoming the sport’s third powerhouse program on campus.

In its very first year, UCLA’s coed club tennis team qualified for the 2004 USA Team Tennis National Campus Championships after winning the Southern California Championship in December. They did a lot more than just qualify for the forty-team tournament.

“We didn’t know what to expect going in,” said third-year graduate student Mark Otten, who organized this year’s squad from players who competed in the fall intramural league.

After mowing through Penn State, Georgia Institute of Technology, Alabama and Sam Houston State in pool play, the team advanced and upended defending champion and top-seeded Florida 27-24 in the quarterfinals. Playing under the World Team Tennis format, the Bruins were ahead five games heading into the final match. But the Gators fought back, jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the mixed-doubles match. The Bruins then substituted DeGoede for Otten, and he rallied back with partner Laurel Turbin to take four of the next six games, sealing the team win.

“Nick’s serve was booming and I think he intimidated them,” said Otten, who earlier in the match teamed with DeGoede to win the men’s doubles pro-set. “It wasn’t fun taking myself out, but it ended up being good for the team.”

However, the Bruins’ fairy tale did not have a Cinderella ending, as they fell in the semifinals to Virginia, 25-13, and then lost the third-place match against Michigan, 29-18.

“We did all we could against Virginia, they were just a little better,” Otten said. “Against Michigan, we wanted to play everyone and it was just for fun.”

In the weeks leading up to the tournament, the team played on the Riviera Country Club’s hard courts to prepare for the clay surface they would play on in Daytona. Although the Bruins lost their match against the club’s members, the team went on to defeat USC’s club team two weeks later by taking nine of 13 sets.

This win over the Trojans did not carry nearly the same uplifting feeling a victory at the varsity level would.

“We expected a really good, competitive match and it wasn’t,” DeGoede said. “It kind of took away from the win.”

Having proven themselves as the premier team in Southern California and a part of the nation’s elite in just one year, the Bruins are eager to keep playing. Although they do not have any upcoming matches lined up, they are not expecting to fall into a hibernation period.

“After going (to Florida) this year, I want to practice year-round to be ready for next year,” said third-year graduate student Nida Denson, who played women’s singles and doubles.

Otten has put together a doubles intramural league for the spring quarter that will give the players regular opportunities to compete. One of the benefits of the organized league is the guaranteed court space the players will have on a weekly basis. This past quarter, Otten’s request to give the team a designated practice time once a week was denied. Instead, the players coordinated and made reservations on their own each week.

“It was sort of a hassle to do reservations manually,” Otten said. “It would have been nice to have something automatic once a week, especially because there’s room. It’s just a matter of putting it on the board.”

With the school allotting the space for next quarter, Otten hopes to see the courts filled. Besides developing combinations for next year’s national tournament, he also hopes the doubles league will help discover new players that will fit into the team.

“There are so many good players out there who don’t know about this,” Otten said. “We want to draw them in.”