A very successful season for Nansemond River High School’s field hockey team came to an early end in the Conference 10 tournament semifinals on Wednesday at Christopher Newport University.

The Lady Warriors rallied from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game midway through the second half, but the Lady Monarchs scored with 3:29 remaining to win 4-3, advancing to Thursday’s final and clinching Conference 10’s last available regional berth.

“I don’t think we had our best performance tonight (considering) the circumstance of the game and knowing we had to win to advance or lose and go home,” Nansemond River coach Ali Mowry said.

She was encouraged to see her players mount a comeback, but ultimately saw a lack of intensity as being the deciding factor in the game.

Also, Mowry said, “I thought (the Lady Monarchs) were able to just kind of spread us out a little bit.”

The Lady Warriors actually scored first, less than three minutes into the game, when senior midfielder/forward Jaclyn Mounie put the ball into the cage, assisted by sophomore forward Ashlyn Rogers.

Menchville responded with goals with 15:19 and 6:50 remaining in the first half, then made it 3-1 with a goal at the 25:02 mark of the second half.

Mounie brought Nansemond River within one about 10 minutes later with the assist coming from junior forward Ariana Samuel. A little over a minute after that, Mounie completed her hat trick, getting an assist from senior midfielder Claire Janek to tie the game.

But the Lady Monarchs were able to avoid overtime this time with their final score.

“I think they were just pressuring our defense just one after another,” Mowry said on what led to the winning goal, adding that the defense had a little bit of trouble getting the ball out.

When Nansemond River and Menchville faced off on Oct. 8, the Lady Warriors won 2-1 in overtime, despite being out-cornered 20-3.

“It was not as one-sided this time around,” Mowry said.

The Lady Monarchs had 10 offensive penalty corners to Nansemond River’s five on Wednesday.

“I did think my forwards on attack were working really well together,” Mowry said, praising Rogers, Samuel and Mounie, in particular, for their teamwork on the team’s first two goals.

The No. 2 Lady Warriors had played in the conference tournament quarterfinals less than 24 hours before their game on Wednesday, defeating No. 7 Bethel High School 6-0.

“What I’ll take away from this season is just the team itself, the total team effort and the group of seniors I had just were really unselfish over the past few years,” Mowry said.

She praised the seniors for helping the team achieve an impressive 13-4 record this season and an improved ratio of goals scored to goals allowed — 74 to 20.