MOULTRIE – It’s the end of August, and Colquitt County High volleyball is already past the win total (1) of the inaugural 2017 season.

On Thursday, the Packers’ second win under first-year head coach Ron Fowler came at the expense of visiting Early County High, the same club Colquitt defeated on the road Aug. 21 for 2018’s initial win.

At William Bryant Court, Colquitt and Early played a best-3-of-5 match that the Packers swept 3-0. The match in Blakely was also best-of-5, but it ended 3-1. Fowler said the first two sets Thursday were just like the first two sets at Early County with Colquitt taking them by similar scores. In the third set over there, Fowler said his team got complacent and lost it, necessitating a fourth set.

“But today we stayed focused and made it our best set of volleyball all year,” he said. The set scores in Thursday’s match were 25-14, 25-18 and 25-10.

“We knew we had to be ready for the ball to come over the net at any time,” Fowler said about Early County’s style not being the traditional set-and-hit system. “We spent a lot of time working on that (Wednesday). Our passing was better, our communication was better and our serving is getting better. Our misses are down.”

Neither team, for the first 30 rallies of the opening set, had a lead greater than two points. Grace McKee served two aces for Colquitt County in that stretch while Graci Long served one. Madison Montgomery had several digs of Early County hits, and Ragan Harden went up front for a pair of kills. One was a smash in the middle that broke an 10-10 tie, and when her team was later down by two she converted Saralyn Nelson’s assist for the sideout. When Harden hit the ball twice in the middle, that led to another tiebreaking point at 13-13.

Colquitt’s sideout point to lead 16-14 gave Harden the serve. She aced it, and the Packers proceeded to score nine in a row to close out the set 25-14. Harden recorded three aces in all while Shadasia Reynolds used one hand to send the ball back at the net. Long added two points on kills with one assist going to Nelson.

The Packers were up 1-0 in the match, but trailing 4-0 as the second set commenced. Fowler’s group proceeded to score seven straight with Harden serving the go-ahead ace and Bella Sellers capping it off with a kill set by Nelson. Colquitt was up by as many as six points, but Early County stayed competitive keeping the volleyball in play and digging back some strong hits. Thanks to a net violation, the visitors achieved a tied score 12-12.

The sideout for Colquitt occurred when Montgomery was blocked at the net, but she recovered to get the point. Montgomery then set up Harden’s next kill and took serve for an ace (16-13 CC). Colquitt’s ensuing run of four straight points included McKee’s ace and clutch hitting from Harden. Reynolds scored to keep the Packers steadily in front by five to six points, and the set ended 25-18 with McKee converting the pass from Montgomery.

What followed was the best set of the season as described by Fowler. Early County did challenge the Packer focus not giving up on balls that looked like sure points. With the score tied 2-2, Reynolds sent the ball over hard in the middle, and though the visitors dug it they slid under the net in the process. Reynolds scored two more times with both assists going to Nelson, and Colquitt didn’t trail again.

At 9-5, Sarah Beth Glass closed a gap from the back line to keep the ball in play, and Montgomery got the set up to Harden. That was in a 7-0 Packer run with Glass on serve and recording her first ace (14-5 CC). Montgomery and Sellers each assisted kills for Harden, Nelson and Reynolds combined one more time and two of the last four Packer kills went to Sellers.