The singles matches were enough on Tuesday to prove the worthiness of Nansemond-Suffolk Academy’s girls’ tennis team moving on to the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association Division II state semifinals.

The No. 3-seeded Lady Saints defeated visiting No. 6 Chatham Hall 5-1 in Tuesday’s state quarterfinals.

“One down, two to go,” NSA coach Sheryl Raulston said. “I think we did pretty well. We haven’t been able to practice for two days because of the rain.”

Chloe Watts, playing No. 6 singles for the Lady Saints, clinched the fifth match for her team with a 10-7 individual win, making doubles matches unnecessary to establish a team win.

Watts said that coming into the match, she and her team did not know much about Chatham Hall, “but they were seeded much lower than us, so we did have confidence, but that definitely taught me don’t underestimate people because it was a really close match.”

Following are the singles results:

• No. 1 Elvie Sellers (NSA) defeated Holly Rule (CH) 10-0
• No. 2 Ria Khandpur (NSA) defeated Catherine Hare (CH) 10-4
• No. 3 Allison Gottlieb (NSA) defeated Torey Bates Samuel (CH) 10-3
• No. 4 Camilla Walton (CH) defeated Caitlyn Hannah (NSA) 10-3
• No. 5 Anuja Shah (NSA) defeated Ana Carol Wilson (CH) 10-4
• No. 6 Chloe Watts (NSA) defeated Srila Chadalavada (CH) 10-7

Nansemond-Suffolk (9-6) will now travel to face No. 2 The Covenant School in Charlottesville on Friday in the VISAA Division II state semifinals.

“Our whole team has just been talking about it, about winning states,” Watts said. “We’ve all been pushing ourselves in practice and in our games, so I think we’ll definitely do really well in the next game, and hopefully move on.”