PORTLAND, Ore. – Saturday night is going to be a tough one for Teri Jo Schlatter. The former Portland State volleyball player and coach will sit dead center at Shroyer Gym in Bozeman, Mont., cheering on her two daughters, Garyn and Kasey, as they play volleyball. The only problem is that the Schlatter girls will be on opposite benches, leaving mom to decide who to root for.
Teri Jo Schlatter has been waiting for this moment since the day Kasey signed her National Letter of Intent in April to play for Montana State. When the younger Schlatter sister inked to become a Bobcat it meant that over the next three years she would face off against her older sister, Garyn, who is a redshirt sophomore setter for the Vikings.
Understandably, Saturday night's match will be a special one for the Schlatter family. While dad Jim won't be able to make the trip, Teri Jo, her mom and two of her sisters will be in the stands. Teri Jo said she is going to be as neutral as possible, hence sitting in the middle of the gym, and will be fashioning a new t-shirt she sewed herself, which is half green for PSU and half black for Montana State. The shirt also has each of the Schlatter girls' uniform numbers and names on it.
"I"ve actually been waiting all season for this," said Teri Jo, who was a standout on the floor for Portland State in the early 80s and was an assistant coach in the program from 1985-1993. "It's a very cool thing for all of us. It's only hard because they are on opposite teams and I don't want either one of them to lose. I'm not sure how to handle that one, thus the half-and-half shirt and us sitting in the middle of the gym."
The Schlatter family is very tight-knit, which includes younger brother AJ, who plays basketball and football at Canby High School. Even with that closeness, as soon as Kasey decided to attend Montana State, some good-natured trash talking began between the two sisters.
"We've talked a little bit about it, yeah," said Garyn, who was the Big Sky Conference Outsanding Freshman award winner last season. "Mostly now we just talk about our teams and how they are doing. Right now neither one of us says much about it because we don't want the other one to lose. The less we talk it up, hopefully the better the loser will feel.
"But it the beginning there was some fun trash talking. Stuff like 'we are going to beat you," mostly just that competitive attitude we both have coming out."
Both sisters agreed that it's possibly Kasey who's done more of the talking.
"She won't say as much as me," Kasey said, "it's mainly been more of me, just to make it fun. Not many sisters really get the chance to play against each other at the college level. So I'm just trying to make it as fun as possible."
Kasey Schlatter and the Bobcats (0-12, 0-2 Big Sky) have extra motivation going into Saturday's match as their still searching for their first victory of the season.
"It wouldn't only just be cool for me, but also for the team," Kasey said. "Montana State doesn't have the best record against PSU the past couple of years and it'd be nice for me to get a win against my older sister."
Saturday's match will be the first time the two sisters have ever played against each other. They grew up playing in the same club system and for many years their mother was their coach.
Teri Jo Schlatter says both of her daughters have "very high volleyball IQs."
"I think they definitely had an advantage when they first started playing because we started them from zero and were able to train them so they didn't form any bad habits. There is a lot to be said for being around the game and learning from all of the coaches and players they have met in their lives."
Both girls can remember many days and nights in their younger years spent around the game. In fact, Kasey said one of her all-time favorite pictures is "of me at six-months old in the PSU gym being held by someone my mom knew because my mom was coaching a game."
All of those years spent around the sport was one of the biggest factors in the two sisters earning athletic scholarships. Garyn was the more highly recruited of the two, earning Gatorade Oregon State Player of the Year honors as a senior at Canby High, and has always been known as a standout setter. While Kasey may not be quite as athletic as her older sister, Teri Jo says she has put in countless hours honing an all-around game.
Kasey is listed as a defensive specialist on Montana State's roster, but was thrust into the setter position several weeks ago after the Bobcats' starter went out with a concussion. Despite never playing the position, she has averaged 8.68 assists per set over eight matches as the primary setter. MSU's regular setter, Jennifer Lundquist, has been cleared to play, so Kasey may not set this weekend, but will definitely be on the floor in some capacity.
That may be a good thing for the Vikings not having Kasey at the net because Garyn says the sisters know each other inside-and-out.
"She knows everything that I'm going to do before I do it and I know everything she is going to do before she does it," said Garyn. "Many of the things that we normally do against other teams probably won't work because we will tell our teammates what to watch out for."
No matter the outcome of Saturday's match, or in any of the contests between the two schools over the next couple of seasons, Jim and Teri Jo Schlatter will walk away as two very proud parents.
"It's amazing what both of them have been able to do. We are very proud of both of them. They've both worked so hard to get to this point, and it's too bad that one of them will have to lose this weekend."
