By the time Taylor Tacha, Rachel Ford and the rest of their Bertrand teammates got their feet under them Saturday afternoon, Giltner seniors Anastasia Ott and Alexandra Hosier made sure the unranked Vikings' Cinderella

Giltner takes D-1 volleyball crown

GENE COTTER / For the Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Sunday, November 16, 2008 6:00 pm

As the errors mounted for Bertrand and Hosier set up Ott and company repeatedly, the Hornets had buzzed their way to a 25-19, 25-16, 25-16 win in the finals of the Class D-1 State Volleyball Tournament at theÂ NU Coliseum.

"We were a little in awe of the whole experience," Bertrand coach Lisa Mason said. "I think maybe that got to us a little bit."

While Giltner (31-2) hadn't hadn't been at state since 1999 and Bertrand was making its first trip since 1997 and just third overall, the Hornets seemed to rid themselves of any jitters in the early going and seized control.

The Vikings, who had scored 19 total points in two prior trips to state combined, struggled on serve-receive and put themselves in big holes in each set.

"I told my teammates we needed to serve aggressive and get up on them right away," Ott said. "When they did return the serve we played good defense, got it up and put it back. Then we just kept serving. I think we forced a lot of their errors."

Bertrand (24-8) had 28 errors in the first two sets.

"We've always tried to use our serve as our best defense," Giltner coach Kurt Polt said. "We had a lot of errors ourselves tonight, but when we were in system and serving it was pretty effective."

Ott tallied six of her game-high 19 kills and an ace in the first set,Â then added five more kills in the second. Lisa Lockmon, who finished with 11 kills, added four in the second set.

"This feels so good. We wanted to put Giltner back on the map," Ott said.

Tacha paced the Vikings with seven kills.