The historic season of Nansemond River High School’s girls’ soccer team came to an end on Friday between the harsh sun and unforgiving turf where the Lady Warriors faced undefeated Loudoun County High School in the VHSL Group 4A state semifinals.

The Lady Raiders scored five goals in the first half and went on to defeat Nansemond River 11-0 at Amherst County High School.

“They’re a good team,” NR coach Kurt Straub said of Loudoun County, which improved to 21-0-1. “A lot of those girls play for a club team, and so a lot of them have been playing together since they were younger.”

The Lady Raiders’ first goal came in surprising fashion, directly off of a corner kick in the seventh minute of the game.

“The wind kind of just pushed it into the goal,” Straub said. “But that’s soccer, that’s going to happen.”

He said the reason the next three goals happened was a failure to guard the opponent.

The game plan against Loudoun County was to clog the middle of the field where the Lady Raiders like to run their offense. After seeing Nansemond River do this, they moved the ball to the outside, Straub said.

Consequently, he changed his team’s formation, but the Lady Warriors failed to continue marking players on the back side of the goal where Loudoun County proved to be lethal.

The score was 4-0 by the 19th minute of the game, and the Lady Raiders’ fifth goal came in the 29th minute off of a corner kick, though NR sophomore goalkeeper Savannah Miller successfully batted away the first attempt on goal. However, the ball was not cleared, allowing another attempt to find the back of the net.

At halftime, Straub exhorted his players to play with the effort and quality they had demonstrated previously this season.

However, his athletes were struggling with the tremendous heat on Friday.

“That was a huge factor, especially playing on the hard turf,” said Lady Warriors sophomore midfielder Kamarie Jewette, noting the heat and the surface were unforgiving to injuries that some players could ordinarily wrap and play through.

A variety of Nansemond River players came out during the game due to injury or exhaustion, though most went back in eventually.

Knowing the heat would be significant, Straub made great efforts during the week to prepare his team.

“We started our hydration process on Tuesday,” he said. The girls were instructed to drink water regularly at certain points of the day all the way through breakfast on Friday morning.

As Loudoun County scored more goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half, Straub began changing his lineup to let everyone on his roster have the opportunity to play in the state semifinal.

He had urged his players to show heart, and he noted everyone did.

In particular, he highlighted his team captains, sophomore defender Starr Robinson and Jewette.

“They helped hold the team together, especially when you’re down six goals,” he said.

Freshman defender Kayleigh McQueen was also a standout. Whenever she was subbed out of the game, it was never long before she made it clear she was ready to return, even if an available spot was outside of her normal defensive post.

“Whenever a position popped up, she was like ‘Me!’” Straub said.

Senior defender Desiree Patterson said, “The heat got to some of us, but in the end, I think we actually tried our best.”

The Lady Warriors finished the 2015 campaign with an overall record of 13-7-1.

“Yeah, the way we went out wasn’t ideal, but look what we’ve accomplished,” Straub said in what he described as “a season of firsts.”

Aside from it being his first season coaching the team, it was the first season the Lady Warriors had ever gone to the regional championship and it was the first time any soccer team from the five current Suffolk high schools has ever reached the state level.

“It was a good season overall,” Jewette said. “I feel like we learned a lot from it.”