PROVIDENCE—The slide continued for the Harvard men’s lacrosse team last night with a 9-8 loss to No. 20 Brown in Providence, R.I.

It was the Crimson’s fourth consecutive loss and brings the team back to .500 for the first time this season.

Harvard (4-4, 0-3 Ivy) looked promising early in the season after opening with four straight wins. That hot start is just a distant memory now. The Crimson’s chances for an Ivy League title are gone and Harvard must win its final three Ivy games just to avoid a losing record.

The Crimson has had a chance to win in three of the first four, losing by three goals or less three times.

If Harvard wishes to salvage a respectable record from the season, however, it will need to start winning against ranked opponents.

Last night was an excellent chance. After losing last weekend to Cornell after a lopsided second half, co-captain Michael Baly had said that if the Crimson managed to sustain the energy of the first half through a full game, “We can beat anyone.”

But despite a more even effort, an extra-man goal from Brown’s Jonathan Thompson with a little over three minutes remaining sealed the deal for the Bears.

Harvard trailed by one, 6-5, to open the fourth quarter but a goal from Brown’s Jimmy Mormile just nine seconds into the quarter put the Bears up by two.

Fighting back, the Crimson evened the score at 7-7 with goals from freshman attack Mike McBride and junior attack Jay Wich before the Bears’ Thompson scored at 5:31 to put Brown ahead for good.

After Thompson’s insurance goal put the Bears ahead, 9-7, junior attack Matt Primm netted the game’s final tally to pull the Crimson within one with 2:21 remaining.

That was as close as Harvard would come, but Primm’s goal made the final minutes infinitely more dramatic and tense as Brown clung to the slimmest of margins.

Brown took an early 2-0 lead in the first quarter before Harvard finally got on the board with a goal from sophomore midfielder Dan Wurwarg at 13:02.

Brown scored its third to take a 3-1 lead with just four seconds left in the first, but the Crimson would storm back, dominating the opening 10 minutes of the second period.

Sophomore midfielder Jeff Gottschall scored twice and senior midfielder Derek Nowak added one to give the Crimson its first lead of the game, 4-3.

Brown responded with three of its own, including one just 19 seconds before halftime, to retake a two-goal lead, 6-4, five minutes into the third.