Not many people have played organized volleyball since fourth grade, cried in the middle of a Foreign Cultures 17 final freshman year or embarked on eating barrages evoking comparisons to John Belushi in Animal House. Senior Kathy Dowling has done all three.

"There have been many episodes with Kathy over the past two years," Coach Wayne Lem said. "We chuckle about them from time to time, but I don't want to incriminate myself."

"Kathy is a really different person," says Mary Kroupa, her best friend and an outside hitter on the team. "She's such an easy-going person, but she has a dark side that few have seen."

The Colorado Springs native has run track for each of her four years at Harvard, participating in the 55,100 and 200 meter runs. In her junior year, she decided to try volleyball.

"I remember my first game last year," Kathy says. "I wasn't expecting to play very much, but I ended up starting. I was completely clueless. and I was so intimidated."

Times have changed, as Kathy is now one of Lem's best hitters. She now remains in the lineup the whole games, as she has improved her backline play from the beginning of the years.

"It's just too bad she didn't come on board earlier," Lem said. "She really came on at the end of the season this year, and we're going to need a big performance from her in the Ivy tournament next weekend."

In addition to track and volleyball, Kathy also played basketball in high school. The transition form a high school three-sport-athlete to just track in her freshman year at Harvard was difficult.

"Throughout high school, I never had an open season," Kathy says. "When I got here, I found myself with free time that I never had before, and I started sitting around, eating junk food in my room."

Though volleyball helps her stay in shape for track, that was not the reason she decided to come out for the team in her junior year.

"[Co-Captain] Peri Wallace talked to me about coming out, and so I gave it a try, " Kathy says, "I missed playing volleyball my first two years here, so I figured better late than never,"

The same person who broke down in tears when she blanked on an essay in her Foreign Cultures 17 final now revels in her "non-serious" academic approach.

"I took things too seriously my freshman year," Kathy says, "Now I talk my friends into `sicking out' of exams That's how far I've come since then."

Kathy points to her friendship with Mary Kroupa as the best part of volleyball.

"She's the person that I got out with blow off time with," Kathy says. "She's my best friend at Harvard."