OTTAWA – The Ottawa-Glandorf volleyball team made it all the way to the regional finals last season before falling to Lexington and being denied a trip to the state tournament.
With four seniors and seven juniors back, the Titans figured to be pretty solid again this year. Enter two freshman starters – Claire Eiden and Taylor Alt – and O-G is off to a 10-0 start after knocking off Defiance 3-0 in Western Buckeye League action Monday night at Robert J. Hermiller Gymnasium in Ottawa.
Defiance falls to 4-4 overall and 2-1 in the WBL and gave the Titans all they could handle in the first game before falling 25-22.
“We haven’t played that aggressive type of team yet this year.” Titans coach Ann Ellerbrock said. “But give them credit, their defense was good.”
The close game seemed to grab O-G’s attention and they proceeded to roll to 25-12 and 25-11 wins in the second and third games to close out the match and improve to 3-0 in WBL play. The Titans raced to a 6-0 lead to start the second game before they bested that start with a 8-0 to the third game behind the serves of Emily Annesser.
The Bulldogs were unable to recover from those hot starts by O-G and really were never in either of the last two games.
“When all the parts and pieces are together, we can be pretty good.” Ellerbrock said of the Titans. “I thought Kylie White played really well for us tonight.”
White finished the match with six kills and nine digs for the Titans.
The parts and pieces were together in the second and third games as the Titans consistently passed the ball to the right spot to set up their hitters. Those hitters also played excellent defense as they blocked numerous Bulldog shots.
Taylor Alt led the way with nine kills while her sister Jordan Alt had eight kills. Annesser totaled seven kills for O-G.
Jordan Alt also had had six blocks while her cousin Carly Alt tied her with six blocks of her own.
Annesser also has 11 blocks and 15 assists while Karlie Bellman had nine digs and Eiden finished with seven digs. Kendra Kahle added 11 assists for the Titans.
Morgan Porter led Defiance with eight kills and 12 digs while Alexis Kiessling chipped in with 20 digs.
Ellerbrock is aware of how good her Titans can be but is trying to stay in the present and not look ahead to the tournament.
“This is my 27th year of coaching and we have all the pieces,” Ellerbrock said. “I wouldn’t say that we are on a mission but it (a trip to state) is on my radar.”
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