That ability makes Berry a dynamic offensive weapon and helped her finish ninth in the league in scoring. But that was last year, when most opposing teams focused their gameplans around stopping Tay. Now Berry is the Crimson’s biggest threat at guard, and Harvard’s Ivy League rivals will be well aware of her capabilities.

So it’s a good thing for the Crimson that scoring is not all that its star sophomore can do.

In fact, it was primarily her court vision that led Delaney-Smith to start her at the point as a freshman a year ago.

“This year [Berry] is going to garner way more attention [but] the attention she gets will create for someone else,” Delaney-Smith says. “Her stats may not be as flashy as Emily Tay’s—or even her own—at times last year, but she will be a fundamentally sound, tremendous, reliable point guard.”

And Berry says she will have no problem dishing to teammates.

“As the point guard and floor leader, my goal is to make everyone else on the floor better,” Berry says.

Berry finished in the top five in the league in assists last year, and looks set to improve upon those numbers with Harvard hoping to implement a more run-and-gun style of play.

One aspect that won’t change with the new offense will be Berry’s lockdown defense. In her freshman season, she was often assigned to guard the opposition’s best player.

As the focal point on both sides of the ball, Berry was a large part of the Crimson’s success last year. This season, the do-it-all point guard will have to be even better if Harvard is to challenge for the Ivy crown.

But high expectations are nothing new to Berry.

“I’d say that even though there might be a lot of [external] pressure, I put a lot of pressure on myself too,” Berry says. “You can’t let the expectations get to you.”

“This is her team,” Delaney-Smith says. “She will be the starting point guard for this team for four years, and I don’t see that changing.”

—Staff writer Jay M. Cohen can be reached at jaycohen@fas.harvard.edu.