This was truly a magical season for the Otis girls volleyball team.
The Bulldogs capped a perfect campaign by defeating two-time defending champion Fleming 18-25, 25-19, 25-15, 25-16 to win the Class 1A state championship at the Denver Coliseum.
“These kids are flat-out incredible,” veteran Otis coach Bonnie Wallin- Kuntz said. “We have been down in games and we’ve dug back from 10, 12 points down. They’re just incredible. It’s such an honor to just be a part of this team.”
Otis capped its season with a perfect 30-0 record and beat Fleming (28-4) for the third time this season. What’s more, Otis also avenged a 26-24, 25-19, 25-20 loss to Fleming in last year’s finals.
Otis has now won three state volleyball titles in its school’s history. The Bulldogs beat Cheraw in 1998 and Flagler in 2002.
Fleming had won the last two 1A titles, and now has lost in the finals in 2006 to Kit Carson and this season to Otis.
“Otis is a good team,” Fleming coach Derek Herbert said. “Their serving, their defense, is strong. We had a harder time getting the ball down on them than they did on us. Then we didn’t hit at them as much as we wanted to because they served at us so aggressively.”
After Fleming ran away with Game 1, Otis responded with Anthonya Schaffert leading the way. The junior outside hitter sparked the six-point victory in Game 2 and kept riding that momentum throughout the match.
“We have a lot of heart and we set out all year to win state,” Schaffert said. “Fleming is a great team and we really wanted to get them back from last year.”
Jessica Noble, a sophomore outside hitter, echoed Schaffert.
“This is a great feeling,” Noble said. “We wanted to win the gold ball, and then our goal became to win the gold ball and go undefeated.”
Just to get to the finals against Fleming, Otis outlasted Hi-Plains in five games, winning 15-8 in the fifth game. Fleming swept past Weldon Valley in three games.
“My kids are just relentless,” Wallin-Kuntz said.
1A all-tournament team
Anthonya Schaffert, Otis, Jr.
Jessica Noble, Otis, So.
Kati Kunz, Otis, So.
Morgan Wilkening, Fleming, So.
Whitney McCaffrey, Hi-Plains, Sr.
Marissa Headley, Weldon Vy., Sr.
MVP: Schaffert
