Nansemond-Suffolk goalkeeper Tori Lauder and her defensive teammates were exhausted, understandably so, following the Lady Saints conference match against visiting Bishop Sullivan Catholic on Tuesday afternoon at NSA.

The Lady Crusaders pressured the Lady Saint goal repeatedly through the second half and claimed a 5-0 win.

Bishop Sullivan hurt the Lady Saints with sprints in on the NSA arc and kept the Lady Saint defenders penned in even more with 14 penalty corners.

A month ago, Bishop Sullivan beat NSA 4-2 in a non-Tidewater Conference match in Virginia Beach.   Along with all of the Bishop Sullivan attacking taking a toll on the Lady Saint stamina, in Tuesdays TCIS match, it paid off for a wider margin on the scoreboard.

Both sides had breaks into the opponent’s end and circle in the opening minutes. Had the Lady Saints scored first, perhaps the match would’ve swung a different way.

Heading into conference play, NSA lost three matches, but one by a two-goal and two by one-goal margins, in a tournament at the Carlisle School in Martinsville. NSA followed the tourney a few days later by hosting North Cross, scoring four goals in the first half and winning 6-1.

Tidewater Conference play hasn’t been as kind. Walsingham won 5-1 at NSA last Tuesday. Bishop Sullivan’s win drops the Lady Saints to 0-2 in conference.

The Lady Crusaders turned a 4-on-2 break into NSA’s end into a goal in the 10^th minute.

The Lady Saints put together a couple chances to get Bishop Sullivan’s first goal back.

Bishop Sullivan made it 2-0 just under six minutes before halftime. The Lady Crusaders scored with a barrage of traffic and shots in front of Lauder’s goal, finally putting one past her after she made two saves.

Bishop Sullivan added goals shortly after halftime in the 34^th and 36^th minutes to put the result out of reach.

Lauder had to make lots of saves and the Lady Saints kept working against Bishop Sullivan corners through much of the last 25 minutes.

Difficult conference matches are still ahead for the Lady Saints. NSA (2-8-1) goes to Cape Henry on Thursday and to Norfolk Academy next Tuesday.