The Morris volleyball team has had a habit of starting out slowly in matches this season, only to rally and come back for a victory.

That scenario played out again Tuesday in the first varsity match in Morris’ newly-renovated gymnasium against Interstate Eight Conference rival Ottawa. There are a new floor and bleachers in the gym, as well as air conditioning.

The comfort of the air conditioning seemed to make Ottawa more comfortable in the first set as the Pirates (6-11-2, 0-2) came away with a 25-22 win. Morris (12-4, 2-1), however, righted the ship and cruised to wins of 25-12 and 25-8 in the second and third sets, respectively, to christen the new gym with a victory. Prior to Tuesday, Morris had played its home matches at the former Shabbona School gym just down the street.

Alexis Williams spread the ball around from her setter position, leading the team with 22 assists, while Brooke Thorson had 12. Hannah Linn had a match-high 15 kills for Morris, while Lily Hansen and Tessa Shannon each had eight and Rosemary Misener had five. Alyssa Jepson had team-leading totals of 21 digs and six aces.

“It’s been kind of weird like that all year,” Williams said about the team’s slow start. “Tonight, it was definitely jitters from playing in the new gym. After that first set, we talked about the first-set jitters and that they were out of the way.

“We knew their right-side blocker would be going up against our outsides, so we wanted to set the middles [Hansen and Misener] more. Once we got them involved, it opened things up. It’s nice for me as a setter to have so many options to choose from. I don’t have to try to force things to one or two girls. I can go wherever the play takes me.”

Ottawa displayed strong play at the net on both offense and defense in the first set. Belle Markey had two blocks in the set’s first three points, while Bella Knoll had a pair of kills as the Pirates moved out to an 8-5 lead. Morris crept back to take a 10-9 lead, but Ottawa scored the next four points, the last a kill by Markey, to take a 13-10 lead. Morris get itself back in the lead at 20-19, and the set was tied at 21 before Ottawa got two straight kills by Savannah Markey and an ace by Kendall Biba for a 24-21 lead. Morris got a point on a kill by Linn, but Belle Markey ended the set with a kill for the Pirates.

“The first set was very encouraging,” Ottawa coach Kristina Kore said. “That’s how we know we can play. Defense, blocking, attacking, it was all there. Then, in the next two sets, we let our mentality get the best of us and things snowballed.

“I thought Belle Markey had a nice match and so did Kendall Biba. We are young and having some struggles, but the girls are working hard. We had pockets of playing well, but it came down to our own errors.”

Morris got out of the gate quickly in the second set, as Jepson had back-to-back aces to put her team ahead 7-1. After a block by Knoll made it 10-4, Misener got a kill for an 11-4 Morris lead and stepped to the service line. She went on a seven-point run, including two aces, two kills by Shannon and one by Olivia Peterson. Hansen had a kill and a block on consecutive points to put Morris ahead 21-9. The set ended on a Linn kill.

The third set was similar as Morris took a 7-2 lead on a kill by Shannon. The Pirates played Morris even the next 10 points, but Morris ended the match with a 13-1 run, highlighted by a six-point serving streak by Jepson and a five-point serving run by Williams to end the match.

“The girls really wanted this one and they were excited,” Morris coach Scott Howell said. “Ottawa got some big blocks on us in the first set. It took us a little time to figure out how to get around it, but when we did, we did what we are capable of.

“We served better in the second and third sets and that helped a lot. We were able to get Ottawa out of rhythm and took advantage of a lot of free balls.”