MOULTRIE — The score appears as if Colquitt County won its fourth straight Region 1-AAAAA girls tennis championship handily on Wednesday, with a 3-0 victory over Lowndes.

But Lady Packers coach Linda Berl said it was anything but, calling it “hard-fought.”

The Lady Packers knocked off Tift County 3-0 in their first match of tournament, held at the Abraham Baldwin College courts to advance to the championship.

A three-set win by the No. 1 doubles team of Gracie Qurnell and Anne Yearta while a Colquitt County singles match was still in doubt nearby sealed the latest in a string of region championships that dates back to 2003.

“We’re a happy bunch,” Berl said after the final match. “We all held up four fingers for the picture.

“I’m so proud of them. And happy for the seniors.”

Two of those seniors have been on hand for all four championships.

Lindsay Jacobs, who has played No. 1 singles the last three seasons, was a freshman playing No. 2 singles (behind older sister Ashley, who was playing No. 1) when the Lady Packers started their streak.

And Qurnell played No. 2 doubles in 2003 with Elizabeth Singley.

Berl has coached the Lady Packers the last two seasons. Grant Hammack, this year’s boys coach, was the coach of both the girls and boys teams in 2003 and 2004.

The Lady Packers, now 17-3, will play host to the No. 4 team from Region 2-AAAAA in a first-round state tournament match.

First-round matches must be completed by Saturday, April 29.

Colquitt County’s boys were eliminated by Tift County 2-3 in their first match of the tournament.

“We were so close,” Hammack said.

At No. 1 singles, Zach Owen lost to Billy Griffin 1-6, 2-6, but the Packers won the other two singles matches.

Austin York at No. 2 won over Matt Hughes 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

And Shaun Soderstrom defeated Sam Drew 6-4, 6-2.

But the Packers lost two close doubles matches.

At No. 1, Bradley Michie and Chris Harvin fell to Charlie Brown and Paton Willis, 5-7, 5-7.

And at No. 2, Zach Clifton and Barclay Mitchell lost to David Metzger and Caleb Tillman 6-7(4-7), 6-7(3-7).

Clifton and Mitchell were up 5-4 in the first set and faced a set point, but could not nail it down.

The Colquitt County boys team, which had just one senior — Michie — finished 4-15.

“Unforced errors killed us,” Hammack said. “But we got a lot of experience this year.

“Maybe that will help us down the road.”

Lowndes was undefeated in the region and will have the top seed to the state tournament. Valdosta won second, followed by Houston County and Tift County.

The Colquitt County and Lowndes girls will play host to first-round state tournament matches. Coffee was third and Tift County finished fourth.

Valdosta’s girls, the only region team to defeated the Lady Packers this season, joined Houston County in not making the state tournament.

And it was that 2-3 loss to Valdosta back on March 16 that forced the Lady Packers to win the title the hard way. Had they finished undefeated in regular season, they would have been able to skip the tournament, as they did in 2004.

But the Lady Packers took care of business.

Murphy got the Lady Packers first point in the match against Tift County, defeating Leah Lamb for the third time this season, winning 6-3, 6-0.

Yearta and Qurnell got the second point with a 6-0, 6-3 victory at No. 1 doubles over Rachel Samples and Kristry Truman. It was Colquitt County’s third win over Tift at No. 1 doubles as well.

The youngest members of the starting seven clinched the match. Jessica Harvin and Savanna Lamon defeated Lindsay Ellis and Lauren Lindsey 6-2, 6-0. The Harvin-Lamon duo won all three times it met Tift County.

Jacobs, who was held out of Monday’s match with Lawton Chiles because of an illness and who still was not feeling well on Tuesday, was leading Stacy Perlis 6-4, 4-1, when they were pulled from the court after Harvin and Lamon won.

Landi Clark, playing No. 2 singles, was tied 5-5 when the Lady Packers won.

After getting the final point against Tift County, Harvin and Lamon got the first one in the finals against Lowndes, defeating Lynde Taylor and Allison Keener 6-0, 6-4.

Harvin and Lamon were down 1-4 in the second set before rallying to win and raise their season record to 15-2.

One of those two losses was to Lowndes back on March 5.

Jacobs got the second point, defeating Lacy Hansen, daughter of Valdosta State University tennis coach John Hansen, 6-3, 7-5. Jacobs, too, had to rally from a 1-4 second-set deficit.

Yearta and Qurnell at No. 1 doubles and Murphy at No. 3 singles were struggling to get the clinching point.

Murphy won her first set 6-3 and was up 5-3 in the second, before the Vikettes Laura Godwin rallied to tie the second set at 6-6.

Yearta and Qurnell, battling Leah Taylor and Savannah Roberts, won the first set 6-1, but lost the second 3-6.

After getting up 5-0 in the third set, the two seniors held on as Lowndes made it 5-4, before Colquitt got the third-set, title-clinching win.