NRHS girls advance to semis
Published 9:05 pm Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Hanover High School’s girls’ soccer team scored three minutes into its Region 4A South quarterfinal game on Monday against host Nansemond River High School, but it proved to be the last goal of the Lady Hawks’ 2015 season.
Nansemond River High School junior Claire Janek, No. 14, competes against visiting Hanover High School during the Lady Warriors’ 5-1 Region 4A South quarterfinal victory on Monday. The Lady Warriors must now face Tabb High School, a team they lost to 4-2 during the regular season.
The Lady Warriors tied the game by halftime and then ran away with it in the second half, advancing to the semifinals via a 5-1 victory.
“The first half, we were struggling a little bit because I think the heat was getting to us,” NR sophomore Daijah Norris said. “But then in the second half, we started to connect more and we started to pass more.”
Norris registered a hat trick in the second half, benefiting from two assists by senior Courtney DeLucia and one from junior Claire Janek.
The game started at about 5 p.m., and Lady Warriors coach Kurt Straub said he could tell the heat was getting to his players, but he said his team has been practicing in similar heat for the past month, from shortly after school concludes until 5:30 p.m.
Still, he described his team’s play in the first 20 minutes of Monday’s game as horrible.
“We’re lucky to get out of that (down) 1-0,” he said.
But finally, he said, “They realized how big of a game it was and that if they didn’t win, they were going home.”
Nansemond River sophomore Kamarie Jewette said, “When we saw that we could actually win and win every ball that we stepped to, we decided to pick it up.”
Straub, Jewette and Norris all agreed the Lady Warriors enjoyed a speed advantage against Hanover.
Sophomore Victoria Czuprynski tied the game in the first half with an assist from Janek.
Norris scored her first goal less than seven minutes into the second half, “and then we changed our formation,” Straub said.
The change came in response to the Lady Hawks’ habit of repeatedly going to the outside to attack on offense.
“So that’s the only adjustment we made, was just throwing them off balance a little bit, stacking the outside,” he said. “They didn’t like going inside very much.”
Freshman Indiah Hunter scored the next goal, with Jewette providing the assist, and then Norris scored her final two goals.
Straub praised the defense of junior Kendall Webster, sophomore Starr Robinson and senior Desiree Patterson, as well as sophomore Savannah Miller, who played most of the game in goal.
The Lady Warriors (12-5-1) are scheduled to hit the road on Wednesday to face Tabb High School in the Region 4A South semifinals. The winner qualifies for the state tournament.
