April 22, 2011

By Sandra McKenn

Bucknell senior Lauren Lucido has been playing tennis since she went to the courts with her parents as a 5-year-old. Since then, her dreams have come full circle.

"When I first started playing, I wanted to go pro," said Lucido, a St. Paul's School for Girls graduate. "Then, when I was 13 or 14, I realized I wanted to play in college at a Division I school. A lot of pros don't go to school. They're home-schooled and on the court most of the time. I had seen a bunch of kids in my [USTA] Mid-Atlantic Section burn out or get injured, and when that happened, they had nothing to fall back on. I didn't want that to happen to me."

So Lucido, 21, went to Bucknell, where she plays No. 1 singles for the tennis team and will graduate with a degree in sociology, with a concentration in culture, media and leisure studies. She laughs at that leisure studies part.

"My dad didn't get that either," she said. "Basically, I decided I wanted to go into sports broadcasting, and Bucknell doesn't have that. This is the closest way I could get to it. It covers the industry, sports-related management and media broadcasting."

Besides the degree, she will emerge with the distinction of being Bucknell's all-time record holder, among both men and women, for combined wins (singles and doubles) with a 166-71 record and with her original dream of becoming a pro tennis player back in consideration.

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