With Hart Still Intact, W. Volley. Seeks Title

Younger sisters playing on the same team with their older sisters usually don't get much of the limelight.

Not so for Katherine Hart.

Last year, in her sister Elissa's senior season for the Harvard women's volleyball team (1-1 through Saturday), Hart became the first Harvard volleyball player to take the Ivy League Rookie of the Year award.

"I had a great time playing with her," Hart said. "I never felt like I was in the shadows."

Katherine has no reason to think that she would be.

Among returning players, she is the leader in total kills and blocks last season, managing 165 kills at a rate of 1.58 per game. She also had 74 blocks in her rookie year, 20 of them solo.

Not bad for a "little" sister.

Katherine, who stands six feet tall, felt that she and her sister contributed in different ways to the team.

"We definitely had two distinct roles," she said.

They did have one purpose in common--to punish opponents with vicious kills.

This year, however, she is the one to step into her sister's old role as the Crimson's enforcer in the front row.

"She was a very powerful player," Hart said. "I'm trying to step up to fill in the spot."

And fill it she will.

Coach Jennifer Weiss, who married Harvard Wrestling Coach Jay Weiss last June, feels that Katherine will do a fine job as the starting middle hitter.

"She's very well trained," Jennifer Weiss said. "She's very knowledgeable and is a great team player."

A history and literature concentrator, Hart comes from a volleyball family, so to speak.

While her parents Cary and Gary didn't play, her younger sister Laura, 16, is following in the two older sisters' footsteps at Rio Americano High School in Sacramento.

"Always being tall, volleyball was something we could excel at right away," Katherine Hart said.

Elissa Hart, who is currently teaching eight grade in Washington, D.C., was a vocal person, according to Weiss.

Katherine, however, speaks softly. She is the type of athlete whose bite is worse than her bark.

Her coach calls it a "loud presence," the ability to lead by example rather than voice.

The team she is setting an example for happens to be returning from a 25-9 season with a 7-0 record in conference contests.

The goal for the year, of course, is an Ivy League title and a trip to the NCAA tournament, an accomplishment that could well happen if the pieces fall into place.

"There is a lot of parity in the league this year," Jennifer Weiss said. "Yale and Dartmouth are going to be strong."

Sophomore Angela Lutich, who had 164 kills last year, and junior Linda Jellison, who had 54 blocks, will hold prominent places in the Crimson attack.

Setters Kate Nash, the co-captain, and sophomore Julie Yick return this year, averaging 8.97 and 3.06 assists per game, respectively.

Melissa Forcum, a senior outside hitter, is the returning player with the most digs--she averaged 3.12 per game last year.

The lone freshman is Erin Denniston, an outside hitter from Irvine, California.

Weiss figures Denniston will be thrown into the mix with the older players.

"Once she gets comfortable with the college game, she will be phenomenal," Weiss said.

After barely missing out on league championships in each of the last three seasons, the Harvard players hope this is their year to grab Ivy glory. WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL

LAST SEASON

25-9, 7-0 lvy

COACH

Jennifer Weiss, sixth year

CAPTAINS

Kate Nash, Melissa Forcum

KEY RETURNERS

Senior S Kate Nash; Senior OH Melissa Forcum; Sophomore MH Katherine Hart

KEY LOSSES

MH Elissa Hart; OH Lolita Lopez

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING

"There is a lot of parity in the league this year." --Harvard Coach Jennifer Weiss

OUTLOOK

This team saw the lvy League title slip from its fingertips in 1995 and 1996, then last year lost twice in the lvy Tournament after an undefeated lvy run. It is a hungry team, and one capable of challenging for a title despite a huge loss in Elissa Hart. If the younger Hart can ably fill her sister's shoes, problem solved.

W. VOLLEYBALL SCHEDULE (HOME GAMES IN CAPS)

DATE  OPPONENT 9/12  HOLY CROSS, W 3-0 B.C., L 3-1 9/13  Cent. Conn., W 3-0 9/18  Nevada-Reno; Cal State-Fullerton 9/19  San Luis Obispo; St. Mary's 9/22  MASSACHUSETTS 9/25  PITTSBURGH 9/26  MANHATTAN; ST. JOHN'S 9/30  NEW HAMPSHIRE 10/3  Indiana State 10/4  Denver, Northeastern 10/9  Cornell 10/10  Columbia 10/14  Boston College 10/16  PRINCETON 10/17  PENNSYLVANIA 10/24  DARTMOUTH 10/27  PROVIDENCE 10/30  Yale 10/31  Brown 11/4  Northeastern 11/6  MARIST FAIRFIELD 11/7  HOLY CROSS SIENA 11/13-15  Ivy Championships (at Brown)

DATE  OPPONENT 9/12  HOLY CROSS, W 3-0 B.C., L 3-1 9/13  Cent. Conn., W 3-0 9/18  Nevada-Reno; Cal State-Fullerton 9/19  San Luis Obispo; St. Mary's 9/22  MASSACHUSETTS 9/25  PITTSBURGH 9/26  MANHATTAN; ST. JOHN'S 9/30  NEW HAMPSHIRE 10/3  Indiana State 10/4  Denver, Northeastern 10/9  Cornell 10/10  Columbia 10/14  Boston College 10/16  PRINCETON 10/17  PENNSYLVANIA 10/24  DARTMOUTH 10/27  PROVIDENCE 10/30  Yale 10/31  Brown 11/4  Northeastern 11/6  MARIST FAIRFIELD 11/7  HOLY CROSS SIENA 11/13-15  Ivy Championships (at Brown)