The Nansemond Volleyball Club 14-Blue team may not be perfect, but it has taken some positive strides.

“I don’t want them to try to be perfect,” Robyn Ross said of her collection of seventh- and eighth-graders from NSA, StoneBridge School and Smithfield High School. “I want them to try and be good a lot. If we can be good a lot of the time, then we will beat most teams.”

The team was good a lot playing in the 15-year-olds division at the Old Dominion Region Tournament in Richmond on Saturday, going 4-2 and finishing in second place out of an original field of 12 teams.

“When they try and be perfect is when there’s too much pressure, I think, and at that young age, I’m not interested in perfection,” Ross said. “I’m interested in them doing the skill properly and them keeping the ball playable on our side.”

She was greatly pleased with her team’s progress on Saturday, and it came via hard work.

“Earlier in February, we had gone to a big tournament in Charlotte and played some really good teams, and it highlighted several areas that we needed to work on, one of which was minimizing the errors on our side,” Ross said.

These included hitting errors and serve-receive errors. So in the two weeks separating the Charlotte tourney from Saturday’s, eliminating errors was all the team focused on.

When the girls did not eliminate them successfully in practice, they were rewarded with running and burpees, but they eventually made it happen, and Saturday was a fruit of their labor.

In pool play, the NVC 14-Blue team defeated Charlottesville Area Volleyball Club 15 Navy Storm with three straight set wins, 25-17, 25-22, 25-21.

Then, after dropping the first set, 25-19, against Richmond Volleyball Club 14 Zonal, the local girls won the next two sets 25-20, 25-20.

Richmond Volleyball Club 15 National defeated NVC 14-Blue 25-20, 25-21, 25-18 in a third pool play contest.

In the bracket play that followed, matches could be finished after two sets as opposed to three. The 14-Blue team defeated the State Line Cobras 25-11, 25-19 in the quarterfinals.

In the semifinals, the local girls won the first set 25-15 against Richmond Volleyball Club 15 Raglund, then lost the second set 25-20.

In the third and deciding set that only goes to 15 points, 14-Blue trailed 10-6. But the girls showcased mental toughness and conditioning against an older, well-rested foe, out-scoring the RVC team 9-2 to reach the final.

“The mental piece is huge in volleyball because it is such a game of momentum that if you can be mentally tough enough to hang in there, the momentum’s going to shift, and you can get back in a set,” Ross said.

Though 14-Blue lost its rematch with the RVC 15 National team in the final, 25-21, 25-20, Ross thought the match featured some of her team’s best points.

“They really hung in there,” she said. “The RVC 15 National team out-sized us by a lot and out-powered us by a lot, and so we had some just amazing points and amazing smart plays with the ball that kept (us) neck and neck in that match.”

Every member of the 14-Blue team contributed to its success, but particular standouts included eighth-grader Elizabeth Reese of StoneBridge, who recorded 43 kills and six blocks on Saturday, while Nansemond-Suffolk Academy eighth-grader Addison Greene produced 33 kills, 12 aces and three blocks.

NSA seventh-grader Rylee Bono finished with 38 digs on the day, and Smithfield eighth-grader Ashlyn Baker had 26.

“Rachel (Wingfield) did a great job of running the offense and is starting to figure out how to spread the ball around,” Ross said, referring to her eighth-grade setter from StoneBridge who handed out 121 assists.

Three girls made their competitive debut in new positions, as NSA eighth-grader Sydney Louzonis moved to outside hitter, Smithfield eighth-grader Isabelle Pillow moved from that position to right side hitter and Baker moved from that position to being a back row defensive specialist.

“They all did a great job of not freaking out in a new position,” Ross said.

The NVC 14-Blue team (13-8) will return to action on March 26 in Richmond.