VIRGINIA BEACH — Nine minutes into Tuesday’s Eastern Region Tournament quarterfinal field hockey match, Lakeland was already ahead of Granby 1-0.

The Comets, the runner-up team out of the Eastern District, had barely been able to advance the ball out of their own half of the field.

Nevertheless, Lakeland head coach Tara Worley called timeout, met her 11 Lady Cavaliers closer to midfield than the Lakeland bench, then started with, “What’s wrong with you? You look like you’re taking a nap!”

The minute-long speech continued and became more heated.

Two minutes later, Taylor Young poked in a great-looking goal off a cross and assist from Kristin Buck, putting Lakeland up 2-0.

In the next 31 minutes of play, the Lady Cavaliers rolled to a 7-0 lead and finished with a complete landslide over Granby.

In the Eastern Region semifinals, which are set for Thursday afternoon at the U.S. Field Hockey National Training Center in Virginia Beach, Lakeland will face Princess Anne.

The Beach District’s top seed trailed 2-0 in the opening minutes against Hampton’s Kecoughtan before turning the rest of the afternoon into a rout and a 9-3 victory.

Lakeland started its rout with a goal 3:36 into the match. Kelsey Smither intercepted a Granby clearing attempt near the right sideline, then dribbled to the top of the Granby arc. Smither passed to Kendell Combs and Combs, Lakeland’s leading scorer with 22 goals in the regular season, showed nifty stick work by flipping a shot over the Granby goalie and into the upper third of the cage.

Smither went on to tally four assists as Combs and Kaity Byrum had two goals each.

Lakeland doubled its lead by converting the first of what became four goals on penalty corners. A shot by Smither was deflected to the right side of the Comet arc. Buck sent an accurate pass across the face of the goal to Young who pushed the ball over the line before any defenders could react.

Another Combs-from-Smither goal, then Byrum scoring off an assist by Morgan McCaw gave Lakeland a 4-0 halftime lead.

Lakeland outshot Granby 15-1 in the half and went on to a 29-1 advantage for the match. Lakeland piled up a 12-0 advantage in penalty corners.

A perfectly executed play on another corner opened the scoring less than three minutes into the second half.

Byrum’s pass from the corner spot went to McCaw at the top of the arc. Young set the ball up for Smither and Smither’s drive toward the goal was deflected by Alyssa Chirico for a goal.

A goal by Buck, off a Smither assist, in the 38th minute and another penalty corner play which worked superbly, ending with Combs assisting and Byrum getting her second goal, ended the scoring with 17 minutes left.

Lakeland (17-2) has won 10 straight matches. Last year, the Lady Cavaliers reached the Eastern Region semifinals, but lost to the eventual state champions, Cox, 3-2. The two semifinal winners on Thursday qualify for the Group AAA State Tournament.

Lakeland and Princess Anne play at 1 p.m. Thursday with the second semifinal match following at 3 p.m. The regional championship match is scheduled for 3 p.m. Friday.