“I think that on a given night, they’ve got players that are up and down. Anyone can do anything,” Delaney-Smith said. “I think Tia Dawson is one of the more challenging players in the league, so we have to pay attention to her. But they’re sort of having an inconsistent year.”

Tomorrow will mark the second time in Delaney-Smith’s coaching tenure the Crimson has played the same opponent in back-to-back games. In January 2008, Harvard also opened up the Ivy League season with two games against Dartmouth.

“There’s more familiarity,” Delaney-Smith said about playing Dartmouth in consecutive games. “The scout is much easier.”

Saturday is the first of a three-game road stand for Harvard. The Crimson will travel to New Haven and Providence next weekend to meet two new Ivy rivals. In Hanover, Harvard will focus on defensive details against a familiar opponent.

“Scoring 88 points in a game, you should be able to beat most teams when you can score that much, so our focus [these two weeks] was defense,” Delaney-Smith said. “We found some areas where we have to make some adjustments.”

Clark agreed that her team has issues it needs to begin to address.

“We need to keep improving on defense and rebounds,” Clark added. “I think we can improve on what we did last game; that’s kind of our goal, beyond winning.”

—Staff writer Michael D. Ledecky can be reached at mledecky@college.harvard.edu.