Ottawa’s serve-receive struggles costly in loss to Morris

OTTAWA – It’s tough enough playing a strong opponent in the midst of an outstanding season.

But facing that foe with one of the best, most efficient aspects of your game operating at a far less than normal level, then having that sap the energy out of other facets of the game, makes it darn near impossible.

Against Morris, with a single loss one of the top teams in the Interstate 8 Conference, if not the area, the Ottawa High School volleyball team saw one of its greatest assets – its serve-receive – fall apart, and Morris’ serving success was enough to pull the visitors through to a 25-16, 25-18 victory over the Pirates in Kingman Gym on Tuesday.

Ottawa struggled in the back row throughout, allowing 15 aces to Morris on mostly aggressive but hardly nonreturnable serves for the caliber of competition both teams play. Those miscues in the passing game also helped keep the hosts from taking advantage of 11 service errors by the Redskins.

Despite five kills by Piper Nanouski and five digs and seven assists by Lily Miller, the Pirates fell to 7-4, 4-3 in the I-8 match.

“There was really just a weird vibe tonight,” said Ottawa coach Jenn Crum, who noted that in this match her team had virtually all its energy come from freshmen Reese Burgwald and Riley Stevenson. “Honestly, I felt like both sides of the court were very hesitant tonight, almost waiting for someone to do something, and I feel like we passively lost that game.

“We waited for them to do stuff to us rather than us being proactive and taking control of the game, and that’s just not the way we normally play. And that was reflected in our serve-receive. It was weak tonight, and it hurt us, when it’s usually one of our strengths.

“They gave us 11 points with the serves they missed, and we couldn’t capitalize on any of them tonight. … Hopefully we learned here tonight what we don’t want to do, get it out of our system and move forward.”

The opening set seesawed, with neither team leading by more than a single point until a sideout kill by Jada Less and four straight points by Katherine Halcomb broke a 10-10 tie and put Morris in control. Later, Kennedy Dransfeldt pounded one of her eight kills, then added three service points for a 19-12 Morris edge.

Ottawa tried to rally and got a Piper Nanouski kill and two points from Burgwald to climb within 23-16, but it was too little, too late. A hitting error and an ace by Less closed out the set, and that was just the beginning of the Pirates’ troubles.

The Redskins served even more aggressively in the second set, collecting six of their first 12 points on aces. Half of those came in a five-point burst by Alyssa Schultz that set the visitors’ lead at 12-4. By the same token, half of Ottawa’s first 12 points came on Morris serving miscues, allowing the Pirates to gain a little momentum.

A McKenzie Oslanzi sideout kill and two points (one on an Oslanzi block) by Marissa Burgwald marked just the second time all night that Ottawa put together three consecutive points, but got it within 18-16. However, a kill by Dransfeldt, an ace by Schultz, and a tip by Madison Shannon quickly put Morris back in control.

“Our varsity must have been watching the way our sophomores were serving and decided to come out and do the same thing,” joked Morris coach Scott Howell, his team now 10-1, 6-1, with its only loss to unbeaten Kaneland. “The reason we’re so good on serve-receive is because when we do practice, our serves are what we see. That’s why when No. 7 [Nanouski], who has a real good serve, aced us her first two times, our girls figured her out pretty quickly and adjusted.”