When Laura Holm was a 10-year-old, her sister Kim would play pepper with her in the backyard of their suburban home in the outskirts of Chicago. As the two were passing a volleyball back and forth, Kim doubted her younger sibling's chances from the beginning.

"I would be like, 'You have the worst hands, you'll never be a setter,' " Kim Holm said.

Then as Kim, a senior on the Penn State women's volleyball team, entered the match for the first time in the second game on Saturday at Rec Hall, she gave a look across the net to No. 7 in red. Kim hunched under the net to say something to the Indiana player. She wasn't listening.

"I kind of warned her that she should kind of be ready for a few side remarks across the net from a couple people on the team," Kim said.

Kim would later tell her parents after the game that "Laura didn't hear it, but there was [a lot of trash talking]."

Laura, who is the starting setter for the Hoosiers as a freshman, wasn't too receptive. Penn State senior setter Sam Tortorello had already threatened Laura with a few words while visiting each other's apartments days before the match.

With the score 21-8 in the second game, Kim was ready to play big sister and make Laura's life miserable. As Laura set a ball for fellow Hoosier Lauren Ditteon, Kim jumped into the air with a teammate on her side. As Ditteon put a knock on the ball, Kim and her partner in crime shut the door.

"Blocking is one of my favorite parts of the game anyway, and to block something my sister tried to set up is kind of nice," Kim said. "Anything that involves your sister, it makes it better."

And more bragging rights came for the Holm in Blue and White. With the third game at 29-18, Penn State had a shot at game point. With a choice of options, Sam eyed Kim for the last kill of the game. With swift authority, Kim laid down a shot that no Indiana player could get a hand on, including Laura.

***

John Holm described his Saturday with his wife Janine as a "Rod Serling" type of day.

As graduates of the University of Minnesota, the parents of Kim and Laura were at the football game that Saturday afternoon, experiencing their own version of The Twilight Zone. Embedded in the Golden Gophers section of Beaver Stadium for the Penn State-Minnesota football game before their daughters' game that evening, John and Janine were definitely Penn State supporters before the score could have swung a fair-weather fan in the Lions' corner.

"This was kind of a bizarre day. We got tickets through Penn State, and we bought those in the Minnesota section," John said. "But we were definitely cheering for Penn State."

But nothing could sway John or Janine towards either one of their children. Like Minnesota, Laura's Indiana team got beat down, with the Lions putting a three-game whoopin' on the Hoosiers. Yes, their daughter Kim got the game-winning point of the match, but they also had Laura on their mind.

"We were hoping it would get to be 30-28, 30-28, 30-28. That would have been even more fun," John said.

John Holm had his head with Kim, but his heart with Laura. As part of a compromise to support both daughters, John wore a white Penn State hat, while also wearing a red Indiana sweater. Janine also had her heart was torn between the two, and her shirt proved it, literally.

The mother had sewn two gray shirts together, the front side saying Indiana, and the back dedicated to Penn State volleyball.

Not only did they want to appease their kids, but they also didn't want to push any other tempers along the benches. John and Janine kept head coaches Russ Rose of Penn State and Katie Weismiller of Indiana in mind when they chose attire.

"We didn't want to get beat up by Russ or Katie," John said.

Yet this is not the first time that the Holm parents had to choose wisely which side to support. For one year in high school, Kim and Laura faced off against one another.

Kim was a senior at St. Charles East in St. Charles, Ill., when Laura was coming into high school as a freshman. In that year, high schoolers in the Holms' district were grandfathered to the brand new St. Charles North. Laura, as a freshman, played against Kim's Fighting Saints, who would go on to win an Illinois state championship in 2001.

The next year, Laura would become captain of her team at North, and keep that title for her remaining three years in high school. She would later go on to succeed in guiding North to an undefeated record in 2004.

It's no surprise to anyone in the Holm family that Laura is starting at a Division I program as a freshman.

"She's very intense," Janine said. "It wasn't that much of a surprise."

John, Janine and Kim describe Laura as almost the perfect child. She was valedictorian of her class coming out of high school. Kim, on the other hand, describes herself as the black sheep of the family, except for the fact that she's blonde. Janine describes Kim as a "free spirit."

But despite the personality differences, volleyball has brought the two Holms closer together.

"They root for each other," John said. "They check the box scores and everything. This was a special night."

While volleyball might have brought Kim and Laura closer together, it is splitting both parents apart for most of the season.

During the course of the season, both John and Janine are going to make every single match that they can. In situations where there is a game for both Penn State and Indiana on the same day, they will flip a coin to see who goes where.

"We have hotel reservations everywhere," John said.

This upcoming weekend, both the Lions and the Hoosiers are in action, with Penn State at Northwestern and Wisconsin, and Indiana at home against Iowa and Minnesota.

Again, Minnesota.

Welcome to the Holms' traveling Twilight Zone.

***

Before the Indiana game, Rose said, "Kim Holm will play because she deserves to play, not because we're playing her sister."

While it was pretty much guaranteed that Laura was going to get playing time. Kim was another story. With the amount of talented hitters on the Penn State squad, Kim's playing time throughout the season has been limited, making her more of a senior leader.

Kim's parents were excited when their oldest daughter took the floor. When it finally happened, Kim was happy for the underhanded compliment, but not overly elated.

"It was great to play," Kim said sarcastically. "I love to play."

After the event, Kim realized the significance of what just happened. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that a mother would tell a child to cherish. For a day, she and her sister got to hang out and eat lunch together, and later go to Rec Hall, pass the ball away from one another and slam it down each other's throats.

"We see it really as a really unique, fun experience that they're going to be able to talk about in years to come," Janine said.

In the end, it was still up to Rose if it was ever going to happen. Even the straightforward, no-nonsense Rose has to crack a little bit.

"I played Kim Holm a little today because it was a great opportunity for her to play her sister," Rose said. "It's something the two of them can reminisce about later in life."

So when Kim and Laura are again out in that backyard, wherever that is, they'll have something to remember: the day they were both Division I volleyball players in the Big Ten, and Kim got game point.