Girls volleyball: Morris outlasts Ottawa for I-8 Conference victory

OTTAWA — The Morris volleyball team found itself down seven points quickly in the opening set to Ottawa in Tuesday’s Interstate 8 Conference match at Kingman Gymnasium.

However, the visitors found ways to claw back to take the first set, then after the hosts bounced back to take the second set, made enough plays down the stretch to earn a 29-27, 18-25, 25-22 victory.

The triumph improved Morris to 9-5 overall and 1-1 in league play, while Ottawa dropped to 15-7 and 0-2.

“Whenever you play Ottawa, especially here, you know you’re going to be in for a fight,” Morris coach Scott Howell said. “They do everything well, they play good defense, and they change things up on offense. They are always doing something different to keep you off-balance. You have to have your team ready for anything at any time. Ottawa is a team that really pushes you both mentally and physically.”

Morris was led at the net by Tessa Shannon’s 12 kills, including six in the third set, seven kills from Hannah Linn and six each from Rosemary Misemer and Lily Hansen. Hansen also had five blocks and Misener three, while Cami Pfeifer smacked three aces and Emma Geiss recorded nine service points.

“We practiced very hard on covering tips because Ottawa uses them so well,” Howell said. “They have smart players who use the tip very effectively, so you always have to be looking for it. We struggled at times with our serve receive and when that happens it’s very difficult to run any kind of offense. All that said I thought we played pretty well and made plays in the key moments. This was a nice win for us.”

Ottawa received 11 kills each from Mary Stisser and Addison Duggan. Ayla Dorsey posted seven kills, four blocks, eight service points and five aces, while sister Skylar Dorsey had five kills and passed for 31 assists.

“So many times the difference between a win and a loss is just a couple points, and those couple points aren’t always at the end of sets,” Ottawa coach Jenn Crum said. “I feel like tonight everything started in the first set when we got off to a fast start and then didn’t close it out. We didn’t capitalize in the first set and then were essentially playing from behind the rest of the match.

“I know we came back to win the second set, but letting Morris back into the first set put the thought in their minds that they could come back whenever they needed to. We had a chance to send a message in the opening set and we just didn’t grab the opportunities when we had them.”

After Ottawa raced out to a 9-2 lead in the first set, Morris scored 12 of the next 14 points to take the lead. The teams then nearly traded point for point and also staved off a pair of set points before consecutive kills by Misener and Shannon preceded an ace by Alyssa Jepson.

Ottawa trailed 16-15 in the second set before a kill and block by Duggan gave way to five consecutive kills by Stisser. Another kill by Duggan and an ace by Ana Zeglis sent the match to a deciding set.

With the third set was tied at 18-all. Morris used a kill by Hansen and an ace by Ayla Phillips to get the upperhand before two kills by Shannon helped close out the match.

“I was struggling with my confidence early in the season, but I’m getting to where I want to be with that and a lot of that is credit to my teammates,” Shannon said. “I think we all want to do well for each other, so if you have a bad point or a bad set there is always a teammate there to pick you and help you stay up.

“Like coach said, we worked a ton in practice on defending the tip and also our blocking. Ottawa has so many girls that can attack, so it is important to move your feet and get in the best spot to try and get your hands on the ball at the net. I feel like we really worked together as a team tonight on those two things.

“To me this was the most fun match we’ve played in all season so far.”

Morris is right back in action on Wednesday hosting Pontiac, while Ottawa is off until next Tuesday when it travels to take on rival La Salle-Peru.