The trademark of the Morris volleyball season has been its balance. Rare is the night when one or two hitters get an overwhelming majority of the sets, which leads to Morris opponents being unsure where the ball will go.

That continued Tuesday night when Morris (27-6, 7-2) swept Kaneland 25-16, 25-23 and remained tied with LaSalle-Peru at the top of the Interstate Eight Conference standings. It is the 18th win for Morris in its last 20 matches.

While the offense at the net is spread around, there is no question who the main stopper on defense is. Senior Lily Hansen was honored prior to Tuesday’s match for recording her 200th career block during the Seneca Tournament over the weekend, and she is the school’s all-time leader in the category.

Hansen finished with three blocks to go with three kills, while Hannah Linn and Rosemary Misener each had five kills. Alyssa Jepson led with eight digs, while Cami Pfeifer had seven and Alexis Williams had 15 assists.

Morris was also playing with heavy hearts after the death of Morris student Dakota Welch on Monday.

“I found out this season that I was close to the all-time lead in blocks,” Hansen said. “It took a while to get there, and I can’t do any of it without my teammates.

“It has been a really tough last couple of days, but all of the girls went out there and played for each other and Dakota. It was really good for us to get out on the court and kind of escape thinking about that and get our head cleared.”

Kaneland (11-22, 4-5) stayed right with Morris most of the match, taking a 13-11 lead in the first set behind four kills from freshman Eliza Bruhl, who finished with a team-high six. Morris, though got the serve back on a Knight serving error before Sophie Sanders delivered a seven-point serving run that included a kill and a block by Hansen and a kill by Tessa Shannon that put Morris ahead 19-13. Kaneland got back-to-back kills from Brielle Godomski (3 kills) to pull to within 20-16, but Morris got consecutive kills from Linn, then a kill from Misener and back-to-back blocks by Williams to end the set.

“We’ve been like this all year,” Kaneland coach Cyndi Violett said. “We’re a young team. We hang right with a lot of teams, but we are still learning how to finish things off. That will come with experience.

“The girls are still playing hard. We play a tough schedule with three tough tournaments with quality 4A programs. We’ve played teams like Glenbard West and DePaul College Prep. I’d rather play tough competition like that and get experience from it. I have definitely seen a lot of progress this season. It’s the mental focus that we’re working on, and that comes with experience.”

The Knights jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second set, capped by an ace by Abigail Carter, but Morris answered with a six-point run of its own, including an ace by Jepson and a block and kill by Hansen. Kaneland was able to take a 14-11 lead, but Morris countered with a five-point run that saw a kill and a block by Linn to take a 16-14 lead. Morris led 22-20 before Kaneland tied it on a kill by Grace Remsen and a Morris lifting violation. Morris got a combined block from Williams and Hansen and a Kaneland hitting error to take a 24-22 lead, but Kaneland made it 24-23 on a kill by Natalie Remsen. The match ended with a block by Linn.

“We like to spread the ball around on offense,” Morris coach Scott Howell said. “It makes us a lot harder to defend, and if someone is having an off night, then the others are able to pick them up.

“We had a conversation before the match to take this opportunity to have 45 minutes to escape from all they have been going through. Navigating this has been hard for everybody. This shows how great of teammates these girls are, because they have all been there for each other.”