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."