“They gave her some room, and she went to work and did her thing,” Cyr said.

Kucharcyk’s second goal pulled the Crimson within one, 7-6.

“She really helped us out,” Gleason said. “She’s so fast. She’s incredibly quick. She’s probably one of the hardest people to defend, as a defender going against her in practice.”

VanderMeulen, the Ivy League’s leading scorer in 2011, completed the comeback, notching her first score with 1:38 left.

But the Blue Jays quickly regained the lead on their next possession after McCaffrey scored her 19th goal of the season.

“Hopkins has some strong offensive players, and I thought that we actually had some great stands the last couple times on defense,” Gleason said. “We ended up fouling [D’Amore], but I thought it was tough defense.”

D’Amore played a crucial role in establishing the Blue Jay’s early lead. After Harvard sophomore Jenn Leffew gave the Crimson an early 1-0 advantage, D’Amore answered less than two minutes later, finishing a pass from Rachel Ballatori for her 20th score of the year.

Tetreault put the Crimson back in the lead 37 seconds later with her first score, but Harvard’s lead was short-lived. The Blue Jays answered with a 4-0 run to grab a commanding 5-2 lead at the half.

“We started out a little slow, unsure of ourselves,” Gleason said of the Crimson’s first-half performance.

Harvard came out stronger in the second half, outscoring Johns Hopkins, 5-3, in the frame.

“We came out fighting in the second,” Gleason said. “I thought we started really playing together as a team. We got some draw controls; we forced some turnovers. We made some good stands on defense and were patient on offense.”

But it was not enough, as McCaffrey silenced the Crimson’s comeback attempt.

—Staff writer Martin Kessler can be reached at martin.kessler@college.harvard.edu.