MOULTRIE — Before the 2006 season started, the Colquitt County girls tennis team briefly discussed going undefeated in the region and then getting a fourth straight Region 1-AAAAA tournament championship.

A 2-3 loss to Valdosta on March 16 cost the Lady Packers a chance to finish unbeaten in the region.

But the Lady Packers still will take their shot at a fourth straight title when the Region 1-AAAAA tournament opens today at Abraham Baldwin College in Tifton.

“We did talk about it when we met as a group before the season,” coach Linda Berl said. “We haven’t talked about it since.

“We’ve just focused on each match as it came.”

The Lady Packers are the No. 1 seed and have a bye in the first round.

They will meet the winner of the match between No. 4 Tift County and No. 5 Valdosta in the second round today.

No. 3 Coffee will meet No. 6 Houston County in the other first-round match, with the winner advancing to meet No. 2 Lowndes.

Lowndes, Coffee and Valdosta all tied for second place behind Colquitt County, with the Vikettes winning the tie-breaker for second place.

By finishing first and second in the regular season, Colquitt County and Lowndes are guaranteed spots in the state tournament.

But finishing either first or second in the region tournament will ensure a first-round state tournament match at home.

Colquitt County’s boys, winless in the region, are the No. 5 seed in the region tournament and will face No. 4 Tift County in the first round.

The Packers have twice lost by 2-3 scores to the Blue Devils this season.

When the two teams met on March 28 in Tifton, Packers coach Grant Hammack used Zach Owen at No. 1 singles; Austin York at No. 2 singles; and Shaun Soderstrom at No. 3 singles.

The No. 1 doubles team for most of the season has included Bradley Michie and Chris Harvin.

Michie is the team’s only senior.

Zach Clifton and Barclay Mitchell, who won their match against Lawton Chiles on Monday, are likely to play at No. 2 doubles.

The Colquitt County girls, who are 15-3 this season, have used the same lineup throughout much of the season.

Senior Lindsay Jacobs missed Monday’s match with Lawton Chiles with an illness and Berl said she hopes her No. 1 singles player will be ready to go today.

Jacobs is 16-1, with only a loss to the No. 1 player from Athens Academy spoiling an otherwise perfect record.

For three seasons, Jacobs has played No. 1 singles for the Lady Packers.

“I think she has proved she is the best player in the region,” Berl said. “We need her well.”

Senior Landi Clark will play No. 2 singles, where she finished last season after starting at doubles.

“She has played some tough No. 2 competition this year,” Berl said. “She’s grown throughout the season and she has the confidence to come through for us.”

Like Jacobs, No. 3 singles player Monique Murphy is unbeaten in her 10 region matches.

Murphy, another of the Lady Packers five seniors, is 16-2 this season.

She, too, lost to Athens Academy. Her other loss came at the hands of Bainbridge High’s Athena Rogers in three sets back on March 4.

Murphy has defeated Rogers twice since then.

Seniors Anne Yearta and Gracie Qurnell will take to the courts with a 12-6 record.

Qurnell has been a varsity player since she was a freshman and has developed into what Berl calls “a doubles specialist.”

Yearta has been primarily a doubles player, although she filled in admirably as a singles player last year.

The five seniors began their playing careers in 2001 as seventh-graders on the middle school team coached by Berl.

The No. 2 doubles team is made up of first-year varsity players Jessica Harvin and Savanna Lamon.

The two are 13-2 this season will take a seven-match winning streak into the region tournament.

Both losses were in region matches, against Lowndes and Valdosta and both were in three sets.

Harvin and Lamon knocked off the Lowndes No. 2 doubles team of Lynde Taylor and Alison Keener the second time the two schools met.

And the Colquitt County pair could get another shot at Valdosta’s Laura Bohnsen and Emma Buescher in the second round today.

Berl said she wants her team “to enjoy the moment’ today.

“I want them to play loose, but play focused,” she said.