The Colby men’s lacrosse team traveled to Williamstown, Mass. this past weekend to take on Williams College. The Mules came away with their fifth straight victory, 10-9, suddenly finding themselves battling for a top-four spot in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) with a chance at hosting NESCAC playoff games as they move to 7-3 overall and 4-3 in the conference. Williams fell to 3-7 overall and 1-6 in league play.

Senior captain Jonathan McIvor had an impressive five goals and one assist on the day, leading the team to its first road victory of the season. After battling to a 4-4 halftime tie, Colby had a 5-2 scoring edge in the third quarter to take the lead for good. McIvor scored unassisted just 55 seconds into play, and Ian Deveau ’13 tallied 41 seconds later for a 6-4 lead. The Ephs scored 53 seconds after Deveau’s goal, making the score 6-5. Then the Mules took control and scored three goals in a span of 4:29 to move the lead to 9-5. Junior captain Greg McKillop tallied with 9:59 left in the third, and John Jennings ’13 followed just 54 seconds later with his third goal of the game. McIvor then scored to give Colby a four-goal margin with just 5:30 remaining in the third.

Williams scored a late goal with just one second left in the third quarter, cutting the Mule lead to 9-6, and followed up again with only 37 seconds left in the final quarter to make it 9-7. McIvor’s fifth goal of the game put the score at 10-7 with 12:55 remaining and gave the Mules some breathing room for a short time. Williams battled back again and scored just 43 seconds later to cut the margin to 10-8, and scored again with 8:15 left to make it 10-9. Colby goaltender Peter Reiley ’14 and the defense did a phenomenal job the rest of the game, allowing no further goals and fighting hard for the win. Reiley had four of his 10 saves in the final quarter, Russ Wilson ’14 had two caused turnovers, Peter Willauer ’15 had three ground balls, Christian Kelso ’13 had two ground balls and one caused turnover and captain Nick Hunnewell ’12 finished with a team-high four ground balls. Bjorn Knutson ’13 was 11-for-22 in face-off chances, and the Mules had no penalties the entire game.

The foursome of McIvor, Deveau, Jennings and McKillop have all piled up points during Colby’s five-game winning streak. Deveau has 13 goals and 11 assists in the past five outings, reaching career numbers of 60 goals and 59 assists. McIvor is playing the best lacrosse of his Colby career with 12 goals and four assists in the five games, Jennings has 12 goals and one assist and McKillop is at five goals and seven assists. Jennings pushed his career totals to 77 goals and nine assists in his three years with the Mules.