It was the 19th match of a season which began Aug. 25. Fourteen of the previous 18 matches had been victories.

On Wednesday night alone there had already been 205 points fought over, spanning just over two hours.

And whether or not the Nansemond River boys’ volleyball team made the Southeastern District final and the Eastern Region tournament boiled down to two points.

With the score tied 13-13 in the fifth and decisive game Wednesday night in the Warriors’ semifinal against Deep Creek, those two points went to the Hornets.

In less than a minute, River’s volleyball season went from climax to over, 17-25, 25-22, 25-19, 21-25, 15-13.

The Warriors took game one.

Jason Taylor, who went on to total 44 assists for the match, set up 13 of 14 game one kills.

The only kill he didn’t set for was his own, which gave River the game point at 24-17.

Mark Brown’s solo block, his third of the opening game, took game point for the Warriors.

Brown recorded four kills in game one and Kenny Nance, Brian Briesemeister and Nick Wright each had three.

River’s strong play continued into game two and the Warriors led 12-6 after back-to-back kills by Briesemeister.

Creek rallied to within a point of River at 13-12, and then took the lead at 21-20 as neither side could keep serve for more than two points at a time.

With the game tied at 22, the Hornets took the final three points to square the match.

River fell behind to start game three, but came back and briefly led, 13-12.

DC took six of the next seven points from there, taking a lead that was not threatened for the rest of the game.

Game four was close the whole way.

Creek led 7-4 to start, but River took the next four straight points as a Nance ace tied the score and a Taylor kill gave the Warriors the lead.

The teams remained within two points until the very end of game four.

There were ties at 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20 and 21.

Sean Debbly’s kill gave River a 22-21 lead.

A Wright spike took point 23.

Briesemeister served a change-up ace for point 24, and another Wright kill won game four for the Warriors.

The Hornets jumped out to a 7-4 lead in the decisive game, and River fought back, with a Brown kill tying the game at 8.

DC took their second timeout of the final game. The teams then traded points until DC led 12-11 and River took their second timeout.

DC took the next point after a long rally and led 13-11.

Another long rally ended with a Briesemeister kill from the left side of the net going out off a Hornet blocker and River had serve down 13-12.

A Wright block at the center of the net made it 13-13.

A Debbly kill attempt went just outside the left sideline and DC had match point.

Match point was another long rally, with both teams making numerous diving digs before DC, with River scrambling to get back in position, put down the final kill.

Brown had 16 kills to lead the Warriors. Briesemeister tallied 14 kills.

Wright had 12 kills and four blocks. Debbly recorded seven assists, six kills and two blocks.

andrew.giermak@suffolknewsherald.com