The Nansemond-Suffolk Academy girls’ volleyball team’s path to a third straight state championship involved facing last year’s state runner-up in Friday night’s state semifinals — No. 1 Middleburg Academy.

The Lady Saints claimed a set early, but then the Lady Dragons took charge, winning 23-25, 25-10, 25-21, 25-13 at Richard Bland College in Petersburg.

“We didn’t execute the game plan that we knew we had to in order to win,” NSA coach Robyn Ross said. “And when you’re as small as we are, you have to strategically beat somebody because we can’t physically beat people this year. We didn’t execute our strategy.”

No one on the roster this year for the Lady Saints is taller than 5 feet 8 inches, and yet the team has been remarkably successful. Its lack of height, though, has meant it cannot afford to commit many errors, and on Friday, it tallied 87, the most it has had in a match all season.

“These teams that we’re playing are so good that you’ll never beat them with that many errors, and offensively, we had one of the lowest production matches of the season,” Ross said. “We only had 22 kills total, with 11 hitting errors.”

These numbers led to a lowly .086 hitting percentage for Nansemond-Suffolk.

Ross noted that Middleburg fielded largely the same team it had last year.

“They only lost one girl,” she said. “Everybody else was still there.”

Meanwhile, it was a year of transition for the Lady Saints. Gone to college are their two six-footers, Caylin Harris and Lizzy Fowler, who combined for 24 kills in last year’s state title match, and this season, NSA featured no one playing in the same capacity as they did last year.

Junior outside hitter Lindsay Knierbein was a standout on Friday, though.

“She led the offense with her hitting percentage,” Ross said. “She had a great night altogether. She played good defense, she passed well, she served well. We scored the most points when she was back there serving.”

Knierbein finished with two aces, eight points on her serve, eight kills, 10 digs and she took the brunt of the serve-receive responsibilities, passing 36 of the 89 serves Middleburg sent over.

It was a difficult night on the court for junior outside hitter Livi Bono, who has been the face of the Lady Saints offense this season.

“It’s the burden that she carries on her shoulders with the team that we have,” Ross said. “If we can’t, offensively, get close to 20 kills from her, we can’t beat good teams.”

The coach noted the Lady Dragons “were doing a good job of focusing their block on her, and we couldn’t get other hitters to produce to make the blockers not be able to just key on Livi and Lindsay.”

The Lady Saints finished the season with a 26-9 overall record and were part of the final four in the state at the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association’s Division II level.

While Ross acknowledged losing hurts, she said she wanted her girls to remember this year for what they accomplished as a short team with so many new players in new roles.

“They still did so much more than anyone ever gave them hope to do,” she said. “The final four in state is still a pretty big accomplishment.”