The #18 UCSB men’s ultimate Frisbee club team (22-10 overall) played two nationally stacked tournaments in Texas over Spring Break and finished 6-6.

At the College Centex Tournament in Austin, Texas, the Black Tide finished 4-3 overall, beating Virginia 13-7, Georgia 15-9, Michigan 12-11 and Illinois 12-11 while falling to Brown 13-11, Oregon 13-10 and Washington 15-12.

“The Centex Tournament is definitely the most competitive [tournament] of the year,” sophomore Rory Orloff said. “It’s usually a preview of nationals and, of course, we’re going see the teams that make it to nationals. We feel confident with the performance that weekend and happy that we got to see what they looked like before facing some of those teams in sectionals or even nationals.”

During the optional Easter weekend tournament held at Texas A&M, Santa Barbara finished 2-3, beating the host team 14-6 and Ohio State 15-6 while dropping one game to Wisconsin and two to North Texas.

Since it was a holiday weekend and optional for the Black Tide, the Texas A&M Tournament was a chance for many of the new members to get in some time and show what they could do for Santa Barbara.

“At the A&M Tournament, we played with a small squad,” Orloff said. “It was a good opportunity to get our rookies some experience and fun and a chance to see them play. We still got a lot of good play out of them. Since they’re new, they were lacking the needed experience and they all stepped it up on defense, proving themselves as well.”

After the two tournaments in Texas during the quarter break, Santa Barbara remains well over the .500 mark but the Gauchos could slide in the national rankings when they are released Tuesday after a 6-6 Spring Break.

“We’re winding down to the end of our season, and so we’re all focusing on nationals,” Orloff said. “We have a team that is historically very involved with the postseason, and knows just when to peak. We know where we’re at in the season so far and where we need to be, so we’re keeping that in mind as we get closer to the end of the season.”