Nansemond River High School senior Leo Outland and junior Ryan Fischer each made the 2014 Region 4A South golf tournament into a career highlight on Tuesday in Williamsburg, playing well enough to become first-time state qualifiers.

Achieving this milestone did not seem as likely after Monday’s first round, which was a poor one for the Nansemond River team.

Warriors coach Craig Stephenson said he thought his quietness on the ride home sent a clear message to his players that he was not happy with their performances.

“I gave them a firm talking to about how we needed to finish the year on a positive note, and we went out today and shot our best score of the whole year,” he said on Tuesday.

Nansemond River shot a 328, four strokes better than its previous best round, and it finished with a 672 aggregate, good for fourth place in the region, the same finish 2013’s more experienced team achieved.

Leading the way to make this possible were Outland and Fischer, who made Tuesday the first time this season that they broke the 70s and also the first time in a match this year the Warriors had two scores in the 70s.

“To shoot their best round of the year at the biggest time, when it mattered the most, was huge for them,” Stephenson said.

Outland shot a 78, following his 82 on Monday, for a two-day score of 160. It was tied for the ninth-best individual score overall.

Only the top two teams qualified for states. Removing the members of those teams from the list of individual scorers, the top six remaining golfers qualified for states individually. Outland had the second-best score among those six.

Of making it to the state level, Outland said, “It’s like a goal reached,” one he had held since freshman year.

He did not know he had made it until the final scores were coming in, and when he found out, he said, “I was overwhelmed.”

Fischer shot an 86 on Monday, followed by a 77 on Tuesday for a two-day score of 163.

“After the first day, not playing well, it was pretty tough to come back,” he said. But after receiving encouragement from his parents and coach, “I came back the second day and played very well, and I didn’t expect to make it, but was surprised when I squeezed in there.”

Stephenson said, “Ryan was almost sick to his stomach with nerves,” because not only did he have to wait for other golfers to finish to determine his placement, even after that, it was still up in the air.

He was set to have the seventh-best score, unless Peyton Durham of Dinwiddie High School opted to go to the girls’ state tournament, rather than the boys’. When she did and he finally learned he had made states, he said, “I was speechless.”

Lakeland High School’s team ended up placing last among eight teams, with a 794 aggregate.

“We would have liked to have performed a little bit better, but we weren’t too disappointed,” Cavaliers coach Stephen Watkins said.

The Yorktown Course at the Williamsburg National Golf Club was difficult for the Suffolk golfers who were used to flatter terrain, and Watkins noted the traveling and the early start on Monday took a toll.

But he looked at Lakeland’s season quite positively, overall.

“I feel very good about this year; the kids felt very good about this year,” he said. “We reached all of our goals,” the most notable of which was finishing second in the conference and qualifying for regionals as a team.

King’s Fork High School had three individuals competing. Senior Will Crow had the best showing with a two-day score of 169.

“Stephen (Shaffer) dropped two more strokes today, and he surpassed his goal for the year,” Bulldogs coach Calvin Mitchell said on Tuesday. “His goal was to break 100” in a single round, and he shot a 98.

Mitchell was pleased with his young squad’s growth this year, and said, “Overall, the team dropped about 65 strokes, and so that was great.”

The Group 4A state golf tournament will be held on Monday and Tuesday at Ivy Hill Golf Club in Forest.