Belle Plaine's spiking siblings

It's a case of sibling rivalry meets sibling revelry.

Belle Plaine enters this week's Class 2A, Section 2 volleyball tournament as the top seed in the north bracket. The Tigers are under the tutelage of former star Cassie Wolpern, who in 2002 ended her varsity career there with a then- national high school record 2,638 kills.

"[Having] a bit of an extreme competitive nature when I played, I didn't know if I would like it or if I'd have too much of a player's mindset," the second-year coach said. "But being back in Belle Plaine with all of my experience and knowledge of the game, I felt it was my obligation to share it."

Some personal connections to the team intensified the itch.

Wolpern's younger sister, Abby, and cousin Haley Fogarty are the leading hitters on this year's team, which opens section play Thursday against Sibley East.

Cassie Wolpern previously coached Abby in the junior club volleyball ranks.

The nine-year age difference between Cassie and Abby means the two didn't grow up fighting over the same toys, but the situation of a sister-sister coaching relationship is a unique one.

The good has heavily outweighed the bad.

Sure, there was a slight dust-up between the two in a 3-0 loss to Shakopee in late September. But that came on the heels of the two stopping off in Mankato for the Miranda Lambert concert on the way back from the Southwest Minnesota Challenge tournament in Marshall.

"We need to escape the volleyball world," Cassie Wolpern said.

Practices and matches can get intense, a result of the competitive fire that still burns in Cassie Wolpern. But when it comes time to clear the court or the last point has been made, the last thing Wolpern wants her players to think about is volleyball.

"For a two-hour practice or a two-hour match, your commitment is to the game," she said. "But the biggest shock to me when I got to college was playing one sport for 11 months out of the year. I got to be really run down and exhausted on volleyball.

Abby Wolpern didn't always pay attention to her older sister. She remembers being with the other fourth- graders running around in adjacent gymnasiums while her sister racked up kill after kill toward her national record.

But as a team captain for the program her sister once dominated, she applauds Cassie's sentiments.

"She gets it," Abby said. "It's easy for us to listen to her."

Of all the added pressure Abby might have felt the past two seasons with her sister at the helm, the biggest came on senior night when Cassie gave her an extra-long hug.