KID SISTERS FOLLOW WILSONS, CROSIER INTO VOLLEYBALL : HIGHLAND HIGH COACH SAYS 2 GIRLS DISPLAY COLLEGE-TEAM POTENTIAL.

Byline: Lee Barnathan Daily News Staff Writer

Jennifer Crosier and Josie Wilson are on the Highland High School girls volleyball team. If their surnames sound familiar, they should. The two are following in the footsteps of their older brothers.

It remains to be seen if these girls, who are about to begin their junior year, will be able to match or surpass the play of their brothers, Sean Crosier and Mac and Seth Wilson. Highland coach Mike Bird said both girls might one day earn college scholarships if they work hard enough.

``Jen Crosier might be a little small to play Division I and II (college volleyball), but she can play at a small college,'' Bird said. ``Josie definitely has got a whole lot of talent.''

Josie's brother Seth tried out for Bird's first volleyball team seven years ago and enjoyed himself. That influenced Seth's younger brother Mac to play.

Mac went on to team with Ryan Millar to give the Bulldogs a powerful 1-2 hitting combination. They also won several Golden League titles.

Josie Wilson was playing basketball, but the more she saw Mac playing volleyball, the more interested she got.

``We used to hate it when they started to play volleyball because we wanted to play basketball,'' Crosier said.

``They were always playing (volleyball), and I'm going, `Jeez, they do it a lot.' So I thought I'd try out for my junior high school team,'' Josie said.

She made the team at Juniper.

``It was fun, but the coach didn't play me very much,'' she said. She stood only 5 feet 3 inches at the time.

Having grown nine inches in the past three years, she looks to take over as middle blocker, the position her brother Mac played.

``I used to watch him all the time,'' she said. ``My freshman year, I wanted Mac's number (11) because he's so awesome. I thought so much about his block and how he can see everything so well - and his big hands; he has such big hands.''

Jennifer Crosier also was introduced to volleyball by an older brother, Sean, who in turn had been recruited by Mac Wilson. As an outside hitter, Sean helped the Bulldogs win the league volleyball title last season.

In the summer of 1994, before her freshman year at Highland, Crosier followed her brother to summer practices and started hitting the volleyball with him.

``It was something new, and I caught on quick,'' she said. ``And then Bird had me start setting one day in practice.''

She still sets and made varsity last year as a sophomore. Now, she has stopped playing basketball, which had been her top sport as a freshman.

``I found volleyball to be more fun for me,'' she said. ``The people - they're all crazy and they have fun, and they're not worried.''

She thinks volleyball players are more likely to learn from mistakes - try not to repeat them - than to get depressed about a bad play.