Volleyball: Morris finds its groove to top Sterling in regional semifinal

DIXON – Early on, Sterling was hitting on all cylinders. But when Morris grabbed the momentum, it was an uphill climb for the Golden Warriors the rest of the match.

Morris bounced back from an early deficit in the first set, then slowly built the lead in the second to defeat Sterling 25-21, 25-19 in their Class 3A Dixon Regional semifinal on Tuesday night at Lancaster Gym. Morris advances to Thursday night’s regional final against host Dixon, which upset top-seeded LaSalle-Peru in Tuesday’s first semifinal.

[ Photos from Sterling vs. Morris in 3A Dixon Regional semifinal volleyball match ]

Morris (19-16-1) had its offense rolling for much of the night, and played consistently well in all three phases.

“I’d say this is probably the best game we’ve played in a really long time, and it was running really smooth,” junior setter Alexis Williams said. “Our outsides were doing a really good job, and I was making sure I set it to the line so they could swing line; that worked really well. And we were able to just spread it out, because once I’d get a good set for our middles, they were getting kills no matter what.

“And the passers were doing really well today, making sure they got to the middle so I’d have all three options at the net. I give praise to my DS’s tonight.”

Sterling (21-10) led 10-5 in the first set after a service run by senior setter Delali Amankwa that included an ace, two kills by Carley Sullivan and a spike by Kasey Weeks. But Morris called timeout and turned things around, scoring seven of the next nine points to tie the set 12-12 on a block by Lily Hansen and an ace by Grace Emmerich.

“Our momentum definitely picked up,” junior hitter Tessa Shannon said. “The last week and a half, all we’ve been doing is preaching energy, and that’s what really got us through the game tonight.”

The teams traded the lead until 16-16, then back-to-back kills by junior hitter Hannah Linn gave Morris an 18-16 lead. Sterling got within 18-17 on a Weeks block and 19-18 on a Nia Harris kill, but Linn ripped another kill, then Shannon answered a Harris kill with consecutive spikes of her own before a Hansen block made it 24-19.

Hansen’s kill answered a kill and an ace by Harris to close out the set.

“After we got that 10-5 lead, they called that timeout and they caught some momentum, and we chased it the rest of the match,” Sterling coach Dale Dykeman said.

Kills by Shannon and Rosemary Misener and an ace from Alyssa Jepson staked Morris to a 5-1 lead in the second set. Shannon and Hansen sandwiched kills around a pair of spikes by Sterling’s Sullivan, then when the Warriors got with 9-8 on an ace by Sullivan and a block by Weeks, Misener and Linn smacked kills to push the lead back to 11-8.

A Marley Sechrest kill and an Amankwa ace got Sterling within 15-13, but Ayla Phillips ripped a kill and Shannon had a block and a kill to stretch the lead to 18-13.

“I think we played as aggressively as we could. We all wanted it, but I think we let them run on a little bit too long in some moments,” Amankwa said. “We got runs too, but it was just some of those moments that we got stuck in a little too long.

“I feel like we felt a little bit of pressure, but I still think that we all had the mindset to play hard until the end. We weren’t going to let up no matter what the score was.”

An ace by Karson Dransfeldt and a free-ball kill by Linn made it 22-17, then kills by Hansen and Linn answered a spike by Weeks to get to match point. Harris smacked a kill for Sterling, but Linn followed with one final kill to finish off the match.

It was a total team effort for Morris, as every player who came in provided a spark of some sort throughout the match.

“We’re always confident when people come in, because we know they’re going to get in there and do their job,” Shannon said. “It’s super important to have that trust, and it was big for us tonight.”

Shannon and Linn led the way with nine kills each, and Shannon added six digs and a block. Williams dished 24 assists, Jepson recorded 18 digs, and Hansen had four kills and two blocks. Cami Pfeifer chipped in seven points and five digs for Morris.

“In the locker room before the game, we really hyped each other up and bonded together as a team,” Linn said. “For the last couple of games, we haven’t really been playing together as a team; we’ve been very separated. But tonight, once we saw everyone doing their jobs and working together to get the big points and go on runs – we saw the passers passing, the setters setting and the hitters hitting – we had a really good feeling. Overall, having a good attitude and keeping that momentum really helped us keep the pressure on them.”

Amankwa dished 16 assists to go with nine digs and seven points for Sterling, Harris had seven kills, two blocks and five points, and Sullivan finished with seven digs, five kills and a block. Weeks had three kills and two blocks, Sechrest spiked a pair of kills, Anderson added six digs, and Alasia Harris Rascon finished with 10 digs.

“We battled to get that momentum, and it seemed like every time we’d do one or two or three things positive, we’d follow it with an error. So we were constantly chasing and catching, and then going back down,” Dykeman said. “Half of it was self-inflicted, and half of it was they’re a great team; they’ve got two outsides that bounce the ball incredibly well. It was a combination of that.

“We knew what we were in for tonight; we knew we had to play clean, we knew we had to be efficient, we knew we had to hit and serve hard, and we just came up a little short in some of those areas. We didn’t have our best effort tonight, and if you have an off night against a team the quality of Morris, you’re going to come out with a loss – and we just got caught tonight.”