You first picked up a racket when you were nine. You played tennis throughout high school, fitting hours of practice into a schedule packed with academics and other extracurricular activities. You were a pretty good player, but you mostly just loved the game and the thrill of competition.

And then you were admitted to Stanford, where the players are more than just good, where they are heavily recruited and where most prepare for professional careers. How do you give up a huge part of your life?

A group of Stanford students have refused to. Club Tennis sponsored a mixed-doubles tournament this weekend, hosting ten teams of amateur students. With the winners from each of the three brackets facing each other in a round-robin final, sophomores Tad Henry and Ana Pena emerged victorious, while second place went to Quin Garcia, a masters student in Management Science and Engineering, who played alongside his mother, Nancy Garcia.

Most of the students in the tournament were varsity tennis athletes in high school, and the level of competition was fierce. Henry had played on the varsity team at Haverford University before transferring to Stanford, but now plays on the club team.

“The biggest thing I miss from Haverford is not being able to play tennis, so this is sort of a substitute,” he said.

Event organizer Carling Nguyen, a senior and Daily staff writer, said that students shouldn’t leave a sport just because of the high level of competition at Stanford.

“Everyone at Stanford is really talented at what they do,” she said. “And, Stanford prides itself on its athletics. But there are a lot of very competitive athletes here who might not be of the caliber of varsity, but still want to keep up with their passion.”

To appeal to these types of athletes, Club Tennis was founded two years ago and has grown rapidly since. With 100 students and other community members on their email list and a core group of 25 players, the team won the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Northern California regional tournament last year and received a bid for the national championships, where the team competed against similar teams from dozens of other schools.

Byron Yu, a sixth-year doctoral student in Electrical Engineering, has been with the team since its founding.

“In the beginning, it used to be a social club, and officers organized tournaments for the campus,” he said. “But in the last few years, the competitive aspect has been really great.”

Nguyen emphasized, however, that there is still room for less dedicated members.

“A large base of our players are on the club team, but we have a few non-core players,” she said. “Every Friday afternoon we have an open practice to increase interest in tennis.”

The team continues to face considerable problems with funding. Club Sports has denied the team money, forcing it to appeal to independent organizations each year. The tournament itself was motivated by a grant they received, which required that the team hold events on campus to promote tennis among everyday students.