“In the second half, we took some more risks,” Mancini said. “We weren’t really worried about failing. Just pushing it in a little more [and] being more aggressive made a difference.”

Harvard’s run was sparked by freshman midfielder Elaine Belitsos’ goal at 19:19. Brooks followed, capping off her hat trick on a free position at 14:53, and junior Katie O’Brien also scored on a free position at 12:06, completing the rally for an 8-4 Harvard lead.

“They were falling apart a little on defense,” Walton said. “That gave us some great momentum, momentum we lost a little at the end, but we held our composure.”

The Blue Jays retorted when Heidi Pierce scored unassisted at 8:56, but freshman Casey Owens compensated for that goal with a free position at 4:12, restoring Harvard’s four-goal lead, which would be just enough to withstand Johns Hopkins’ three-goal run in the final three minutes of the game.

“They started pushing us and we went to a more settled defense,” Mancini said. “We had a number of turnovers at the midfield and at the top of the arc in the other end. They capitalized off of a lot of fast breaks.”

Burnett ignited the rally on a free position goal with only 3:01 remaining, and then scored again just 35 seconds later off the draw and a pass from Larrimore to cut the lead to two. Riordan then scored on a feed from Wellner to bring the Blue Jays within a goal with 1:40 left. But that was as far as Johns Hopkins got, as Harvard won the ensuing draw and ran out the remaining time.

“Their frantic nature made us a little frantic,” Mancini said. “Luckily at the end, when we needed to, we got the draw back.”

“[Freshman] Kelly Noon had a really poised game and had some really crucial ground balls at the end,” Mancini added. “Our defense struggled, but came through when they had to.”

In addition to its ECAC crown, several of Harvard’s players were honored as All-Ivy selections on April 10. Junior Katie Shaughnessy and senior Erin Kutner represented the Crimson on the second team, as attack and defense respectively, while senior Heather Gotha earned an honorable mention for defense.

Harvard finished the year in sixth place in a tough Ivy League that had two teams make the NCAA lacrosse final four—more than any other conference. Cornell, led by Ivy Player of the Year and leading scorer Jaimee Reynolds, upended seven-time defending national champion Maryland, 14-4, in the NCAA quaterfinals this past weekend while Princeton topped Notre Dame 11-5 to advance.

Harvard’s finale sends its five seniors off on an upswing and the other youngsters on with a stronger program.

“[It’s] very bittersweet,” Walton said. “We had a sort-of rocky four years and this is the best way to end it.”

“Our seniors played all season with intensity,” Mancini said. “Their drive and their heart translated into [better play for the] rest of the team.”