Although the women’s lacrosse team was a little fed up with being on the road for the fourth game in a row, they did not let that hold them back from exploding again on the attack.

After beating California 14-4 out west Sunday, the No. 20 Elis (8-6, 3-3 Ivy) built on their momentum by dominating Brown (3-8, 1-3), 14-6 last night in Providence. The Bulldog attack, which was led by the 11 combined goals from Lauren Taylor ’08 and Katie Sargent ’05, controlled the ball for much of the game. With only two games left, the win over the Bears may give the Elis the confidence they need start wrapping up their season.

“There was no way we were going to let ourselves lose to Brown,” Taylor said. “A lot of it was due to the momentum coming off of the Cal game. We played so well there, had a good practice yesterday, and we came out [yesterday] and we knew we were a better team. We had a lot of momentum and excitement.”

Although they ended up with a memorable offensive outing, the Bulldogs only scored four goals in the first half despite getting 16 shots off. Taylor and Sargent both scored quickly to put the Elis up 2-0, but despite possessing the ball well struggled to find the net during the rest of the first period.

“We got off to a little bit of a slow start,” midfielder Lindsay Levin ’07 said. “We were dominant in the attack area first, but things just didn’t seem to materialize.”

The Bears responded to the two Eli tallies with a goal from Amie Biros, who paced the Bears with two goals. Taylor notched another goal with five minutes left and the Bears again responded. Luckily for the Bulldogs, their fast-break goal was called back because of an off-sides call.

“It was a huge moment of the game because otherwise the Bears would have been within one,” defender Sarah Scalia ’06 said. “After that, we stopped them.”

Scalia and the defense succeeded in limiting the Bears’ attack in the first period, but she said their job was made a great deal easier by the attack and midfield, who kept the ball on the other half of the field.

“[The Bears] didn’t get the ball on their attack end that much because our midfield and attack did a good job getting the ball off of the draw and holding it,” Scalia said. “We definitely had possession for a lot longer. Our keys were out-hustling and having the confidence to know that every ground ball is a 50-50 chance. A lot of the team came out with that kind of attitude to go for it.”

Taylor was a prime example of the determined attitude. She said she took the example that Sargent set last Sunday in Berkeley, Calif., and used it to motivate her to score her six goals.

“I just kind of copied what Katie did against Cal, when she had a six goal run,” Taylor said. “I had played against the Brown goalie in high school, so I had some experience with her. I was feeling pretty good and the shots finally started to fall.”

The shots especially fell in the second half, when the Elis went on a six-goal blitz to give them a 10-1 lead.

“Everyone was pumped up and we got a lot of goals at the beginning and never looked back,” Levin said. “If the attack had shot missed or had a turnover, we made sure to get on the ball and trap Brown’s midfielders and make sure we didn’t let the ball get out of attack end. We had a lot of double-teams at midfield and took advantage of Brown not having very good stick skills.”

Scalia said the win gives the team the confidence they need as they head towards their last contest at home against No. 14 Cornell, who the Elis are tied with in the league standings.

“We have played teams that we’ve been clearly better than, but we have still struggled a little in the past, but we are getting into our own flow,” she said. “It was really good for the attack to realize they are very capable of scoring. They did it in our first game, on Sunday, and again [yesterday]. We now realize it’s more ‘all or nothing.'”