The Nansemond-Suffolk Academy girls’ tennis team put up an impressive fight in a narrow 5-4 loss to host Hampton Roads Academy on Tuesday.

“We haven’t had a score that close with HRA in a long, long time,” said NSA athletic director Betty Jean Riddick. “We’re feeling very good about tennis this year.”

In an email, Lady Saints girls’ tennis coach Lindsay Raulston wrote, “This was a great match to start our season with. All the way down the line-up the girls had close matches.”

She highlighted Holly Kozak for achieving a particularly thrilling win via a third set tiebreaker in a two-hour No. 3 singles match.

Following are the results from Tuesday’s match:

Doubles:

• Fields and Prillaman (HRA) def. Sellers and Khandpur (NSA) 8-1
• Casey and Lloyd (HRA) def. Kozak and Haddad (NSA) 9-7
• Pharr and Gottlieb (NSA) def. Montgamen and Gartsman (HRA) 8-6

Singles:

• Fields (HRA) def. Sellers (NSA) 6-4, 6-2
• Prillaman (HRA) def. Khandpur (NSA) 6-2, 6-3
• Kozak (NSA) def. Lloyd (HRA) 6-4, 3-6 (10-8)
• Casey (HRA) def. Gottlieb (NSA) 6-2, 6-2
• Haddad (NSA) def. Wang (HRA) 6-4, 6-1
• Pharr (NSA) def. Howard (HRA) 6-4, 6-1

Nansemond-Suffolk (0-1) hits the road on Sept. 4 to face Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School.