The Nansemond River boys’ volleyball team returned to .500 for the season with a 25-20, 25-18, 25-15 home victory over Lakeland on Tuesday night.

Senior libero Nate Welch led the Warriors (7-7, 6-7) with 21 digs, senior setter Nick Seibert had 17 assists, and senior outside hitter Tucker Rhoads had eight kills.

“We played really well as a team,” Welch said.

Junior outside hitter Adrian Drew provided a real spark with his first in-game serves.

“He’s been working on it so hard, and I finally let him serve,” Warriors head coach James Vann said. “And it kind of lifted everybody else up, like, ‘Man, he’s getting his serves in!’ And every time he served, we’d get three or four points off his serve.”

Drew served a total of 21 times and had four aces.

This was the second loss for Lakeland (2-11, 2-10) this season at the hand of the Warriors.

“Same as what we had last time, so (they) didn’t show me much as far as our improvement,” Cavaliers head coach Omar McGann said. “We’ve played other games where we’ve just been hyped, upbeat, ready to go, not letting calls affect us. I think the guys saw how the referees were calling earlier, and they already let it get into their heads.”

Senior setter Brandon Nordan had nine assists, and senior hitter Colby Bennett had two kills and three blocks.

Despite the loss, Bennett saw some positives about his and the team’s performance.

“I was getting a better swing on the ball than I usually have been,” he said. “I’ve definitely gotten stronger over the course of the games and everything. But I felt like Brandon’s a really good setter, he gives me good sets all the time, and I just got to pull through for him. I felt like everybody did a decent job tonight.”

Lakeland hosts Great Bridge and Nansemond River hosts Hickory on Thursday.