M. LACROSSE | For head coach Andy Shay, the wins just keep rolling in. The red-hot No. 16 men’s lacrosse team notched its fifth straight win Saturday with a 14–11 tally against No. 19 Brown.

“All in all it was just a great team effort,” midfielder Max Fuchs ’10 said. “Everyone on our team stepped up and did their job really efficiently, all the way from goalie to defense to middies and offense.”

True to form from their past two contests, the Elis (9–2, 3–2 Ivy) yet again jumped out to an early lead against the Bears (5–5, 2–2) on Saturday in Providence. Yale scored five times — with tallies from four different players — before Brown finally managed to get on the board two minutes into the second quarter.

“We have a very good faceoff man, a very good offense, and our defense played really well — and those three things together gave us a great opportunity to score early on,” Shay said. “If I knew why it happened, I would make it happen every time. But I just don’t want it to stop.”

The Bears managed to cut Yale’s lead during the second frame with three more goals, but the Blue still held an 8–4 edge heading into halftime.

A five-goal third period put the Bulldogs up more definitively. They limited Brown to only one goal that quarter and took a 13–5 lead with one frame left to play.

But Brown made the most of those last 15 minutes. The Bears rallied to score six goals in the final quarter to Yale’s one, and outshot the visitors 16–9.

“We made some mistakes and gave up some goals with some inconsistent play in the middle of the field,” Shay said. “[Brown is] excellent in transition, and they proved that in the fourth quarter.”

While the Elis entered Saturday’s competition in fourth place in the Ancient Eight standings — just trailing third-place Brown — they will continue to climb the conference rankings with the most recent win. A top-four conference spot earns Yale a ticket to this year’s inaugural Ivy League post-season tournament.

In 2009, the Bulldogs finished up the season 5–8 overall and 1–5 in the conference, topping only Penn within the league. But there’s no denying it — something’s changed this spring.

“It feels amazing — I’m a senior and I couldn’t ask for a better senior season,” midfielder Max Rodman ’10 said. “Our main focus this year, kind of our mantra, has been “one play at a time.” I think the difference is partially that mindset.”

Yale returns to Reese Stadium next Saturday to take on Bryant in its second-to-last game of the regular season at 7 p.m.