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The Lady Cougars beat Thomas County Central in four sets.

The game was a tale of two halves. Grace won the first two sets 25-11 and 25-10, lost the third set 23-25, then won the final set 25-20.

“Okay, a win is a win,” Head coach Kelsey Harrell prefaced. “But I wanted to make sure [the players] all knew that the way we won was not acceptable.”

Harrell said that as the region tournament approaches this weekend, the team can’t afford to drop sets like the third set in this match. 

“In the region tournament, we’ll play best two out of three sets,” Harrell said. “We can’t get used to, ‘Oh, if we lose a set, it’s ok, we still have three more to win.’”

The Lady Cougars came into Tuesday’s game after playing four games over the weekend in an Augusta tournament. The team finished 3-1 against “impressive” competition, according to Harrell. But she said the team played similarly then as they did tonight, dropping an “easy” set.

Harrell has had the good problem of having to coach out the team’s weak spots amidst their success.

“It’s the whole double whammy of, like, I’m so proud they won those three games and that we won tonight and didn’t have to go to a fifth set,” Harrell said. “All of those things, it’s great. But we can’t deny the fact that we shouldn’t have been in the situation.”

The GIAA Class AA Region 2 tournament is next for the Lady Cougars. The tournament will be held in Bainbridge in the ABAC Student Wellness Center gym on Saturday. 

The most crucial game of the tournament for the Lady Cougars will be against Georgia Christian Academy. The winner of the game will be crowned the region champion.

The Lady Cougars and Lady Generals have played twice this year. The Lady Generals won the first meeting 3-0, and the Lady Cougars won the second meeting 2-0. 

The matchup will be the Lady Cougars’ first of the day, first serve at 10 a.m.