It was the last practice of the year. The Harvard women's basketball team was winding down yet and her successful and emotional season. One that saw the Crimson fall a game short of a tie for the league championship.

The drills were over. And the sweat was beginning to dry. But the emotions were still running high.

One freshman did not let the moment escape her. It would be the last time she would play with one of the best players ever to wear the crimson and white.

She walked over to the senior, put her arm around her and voiced the same feelings that much of the team felt but didn't think to say.

"Erin, you are my hero," said the rookie with the sort of respect that can only come from a freshman in awe of a teammate and leader.

"Erin" is senior co-captain Erin Maher.

Hero may be a strong word, but if any Harvard athlete is worthy of such high praise, a good case could be made for the lowa native. Just one look at her achievements tells the story.

Maher is Harvard women's basketball's all time leading scorer. She ends her career with the best three-point shooting percentage in NCAA history.

And she is a two-time first-team All-Ivy selection who won the Ancient Eight's Most Valuable Player award her junior year.

But as with most great athletes, the statistics cannot adequately capture Maher's career.

"Erin has been invaluable both on and off the floor," Harvard coach Kathy Delaney Smith says. "Her stats speak for themselves. But what has impressed me most about Erin is her work ethic."

Maher is not your typical dominant basketball player. At 5'8", she's not especially tall. Nor is she lightning quick. But when it comes to shooting a basketball she is simply the best, better than all those who have called Briggs Cage their home.

Her skills date back to childhood, during which Maher honed her shooting in front of her house in Davenport, lowa.

"I used to shoot in the driveway with my brother, sister and father while growing up," Maher says. "I learned a lot from them."

When she wasn't playing with her family, she traveled to Illinois to play in a boys' league.