Early in a match against Northeastern University's B team, Elliot Shriner-Cahn '10, a member of the B-team of Tron, the Brandeis men's Ultimate Frisbee club, threw a pass toward Josh Mandell '11 that hung in the air due to the strong wind. Eventually, the disc came straight down, where the alert Mandell caught it for a score. "The throws are so much harder [in the wind]," Shriner-Cahn said. "When it's windy and the weather's not so great, it becomes more important that we play to our system and keep our throws shorter and better."

Amid the howling winds that made the flight of the disc unpredictable, ultimate squads from 10 different schools took part in the Brandeis "B-Fest" Tournament across campus last Saturday. The Brandeis squad went 2-2 in preliminary play, defeating Bentley College 10-8 and Northeastern 10-2 while losing to Yale University 10-6 and Boston College 10-7 before winning its playoff game after Brown University's C team forfeited.

"We play in a bad-weather region, so a lot of the time most of the tournaments that we're used to are bad weather, whether it be wind or cold or precipitation," said Avraham Wachs-Cashman '08, a captain on the Tron A team and a coach of the B team.

In ultimate Frisbee, teams consist of seven members, and a goal is scored when a player catches the disc in the end zone. In this tournament, the pool games were played to 13 points and the playoff games were to 15, but each game also had a time limit of 1 hour, 20 minutes.

If a game reaches the final 15 minutes, a soft cap is called, meaning the first team to score one more point than the leading team's score at the time wins the match. In the final five minutes, a hard cap is called, and the team leading after the end of the current possession wins the match, unless the game is tied, in which case one more point is played.

This tournament was composed of eight B teams and two C teams which were divided into two pools of five teams each. After each squad played every team in its pool, it played the team in the other pool that finished in the same place in the standings.

Tron never trailed in its match against Northeastern, scoring four goals before Northeastern got on the scoreboard. Northeastern would only score one other goal in the match, and Tron won when Jeff Horowitz '10 caught a long pass in the end zone in the final 15 minutes.

"I was really impressed with how everyone played," Shriner-Cahn said. "People played up to and probably beyond their abilities."

Tron also outlasted crosstown rival Bentley, winning 10-8 after a soft cap was called.

Both of Tron's losses were close defeats. In its loss to Boston College, Tron tied the game at seven, but BC scored three straight goals, the last two after a soft cap was called, to clinch a 10-7 victory. Tron's loss to Yale also went to a soft cap.

Wachs-Cashman said the team's defensive adjustments, in light of the conditions, were key to its performance.

"We do have specific defenses made for [the wind]," he said. "One of the defenses that we threw today that worked really well was a zone defense."

For players like Shriner-Cahn, the two wins were especially satisfying, considering they were the B team's first wins since of the fall 2006 season. Because there are so few B team tournaments in the Boston area, Tron's B team is often forced to play the usually stronger A-teams from other schools.

"We've just had a culture of losing the whole time we've been here," Sean Petterson '11 said. "So once we get the first win, you kind of believe in yourselves a lot more, and you start expecting to win games rather than hoping not to lose them."

The A team next plays in the Yale Cup next Friday and Saturday, while the B team next plays in the Lemony Spring Tournament in Warwick, R.I. April 12 and 13 at 9 a.m. each day. Both teams will then compete in the Metro Boston Open Sectionals April 19 and 20 in Lancaster, Mass.