After leading his team to its first ever NCAA National Championship on Monday, Yale lacrosse captain and attacker Ben Reeves ’18 picked up one more piece of hardware on Thursday night, earning the prestigious Tewaaraton Award for the top lacrosse player in the nation.

Reeves is the first Yale player to win the award. He was named as one of five finalists for the third consecutive season, this time alongside two standout attackers, Justin Guterding of Duke and Pat Spencer of Loyola, as well as midfielder Connor Kelley of Maryland and faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste of Denver. Only four other players have been finalists three times.

Reeves has rewritten the record books throughout his Yale career. He made an impact almost immediately after stepping onto the field at Reese Stadium when he broke the first-year record for scoring with 43 points, by way of 25 goals and 18 assists. In his sophomore year, Reeves became the first Eli ever to be named a Tewaaraton finalist, amassing 79 points over the course of the season to break the sophomore school record. That year, he was also crowned Ivy League Tournament MVP and made the First-Team All-Ivy League and First-Team All-America lists.

After an injury sidelined him for two early games during his junior season, Reeves returned to the field looking stronger than ever. The Macedon, New York native led his team to another Ivy League title while also becoming the Ivy League Player of the Year and once again being named both the Ivy League Tournament MVP and a finalist for the Tewaaraton Award. Although Yale suffered an early tournament exit with a loss to Syracuse, Reeves broke the school record for total career points against the Orange in the Elis’ final contest of the 2017 season.

But Reeves saved his best performance for his senior year, putting up the sixth-highest point total in Division I history with 115 — 62 goals and 53 assists. In a loss to Cornell for the 2018 Ivy League Championship, the da Vinci in cleats notched five goals to officially pass Jon Reese ’90 as the school’s career goal-scoring leader with 164 tallies. After the disappointing loss to Cornell, Reeves rallied to score another 11 goals and lead his team to its first-ever NCAA title after tournament wins over the UMass, Loyola, Albany and Duke.