They haven't won a championship. Heck, they haven't even won a playoff match yet.

But just getting to the postseason has been half the battle for the KarnsCity HighSchool volleyball team.

It wasn't long ago that the Gremlins were at the bottom of the volleyball world.

Back-to-back 0-16 seasons drained morale and threatened to pull the team apart.

"It was awful," said senior Stephanie Isacco, who suffered through those one of those 0-16 campaigns. "We would go into every match knowing we were going to lose."

What made it worse was every other sport at Karns City during the fall season was succeeding.

The volleyball team was a mere afterthought — if that.

"No one even knew we existed," Isacco said. "We barely had any fans at the games. Even when we did win and they announced it over the loud speaker at school the next morning, all we would get was, 'Oh, it's about time.'"

But last year, all that started to change.

Following those two 0-16 years, the Gremlins went 3-13 in 2004 and finished at .500 last season.

This year, the Gremlins are one game over .500 and they qualified for the District 9 Class AA playoffs.

They will travel to play Bradford at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

"At the banquet last season, some of the senior players said they were thankful to the coaching staff for making Karns City realize it had a volleyball team," said KC coach Marcy Isacco. "We still have work to do, but we're getting better."

Isacco, who is now in her third year as the Gremlins coach, said it was by no means easy to get the program turned around.

She struggled with attitudes and low numbers of players. She wrestled with getting her younger players to forget the culture of losing and to focus on a new beginning.

"When you're down, no one wants to play," coach Isacco said. "The major problem was the attitude. Everyone was blaming everyone else."

But that has changed. In the sport of volleyball, teamwork often trumps everything else on the court.

Communication is key.

So is serving, which has grown even more important now that the PIAA has gone to rally scoring.

Serving was another sore spot when Marcy Isacco took over the team.

"That first year, I was very scared when someone went up to serve," the coach said. "I don't know if it was mental, or what it was, when it came to game time, we couldn't get the ball over the net."

All that has changed now. People are noticing the Karns City volleyball team again.

The future appears even brighter for the Gremlins.

Several of the key contributors this season, such as Ashley Campbell, are sophomores and juniors, and the junior varsity team went 11-0 this season.

"It's pretty hard not to look ahead," coachIsacco said. "I'm thinking about moving some people around, and we have some good, young talent already here."

But now teams in the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference aren't taking the Gremlins lightly anymore.

That can be good — and bad.

"We're getting some respect," coach Isacco said. "But we're also getting their best. No one is blowing us off anymore."

That's a welcome change, however, particularly for the seniors.

"No one really knew much about us, or cared to know much about us," said senior Haley Callihan. "It's nice to get some attention. It's really changed our attitude."