DASHER — The Lady Generals are champions. 

Six years. Zero 10-win seasons. Zero winning seasons. Zero region championships.

The Georgia Christian volleyball team had had enough.

The 2020 season brought a lot of firsts for head coach and program founder Carrie Johnson.

What she thought was to be a rebuilding season after her program lost several key seniors last fall, turned into her statistical best season since the program began six years ago.

Thursday, the Lady Generals were the number three seed in a two-round playoff in quest to win the region. Most everyone felt as though they knew the inevitable; the lady Generals had had a remarkable season — one of the best ever had — but it was likely to come to an end.

Not so fast, said the ladies of Dasher.

“My message before the game was simple,” Johnson said. “I told the girls to just go out and play loose; play free. Nobody expects us to win. Everyone has written us off. Just go play your game.”

Message heard loud and clear.

In game one, the Lady Generals took on Highland Christian, of Valdosta.

GCS had not won in the regular season against Highland Christian, going 0-2 against them.

Game one was secured by Highland, but after that, its was all Georgia Christian as Coach Johnson and the Lady Generals ripped off three straight wins in the match to advance to the finals.

They were one game away from being crowned region champs.

GCS now had the tall task of playing the region leader, Grace Christian of Bainbridge, in the final game of the night. Again, the Lady Generals would need to win 3 of the 5 matches to be crowned champions.

GCS was also 0-2 on the year against Grace Christian in the regular season. So once again, they had their work cut out for them.

That would not stop GCS from turning things around on a night when it mattered most.

To keep fans on the edge of their seats, GCS once again dropped the first game to their opponents. But it would be all gas, no brakes for the rest of the match, as the Lady Generals ripped off three straight again.

Region Champs.

For the first time in the six-year career of Georgia Christian volleyball, Coach Johnson can now say she and her girls are the region champions.

“Everyone wrote this team off,” Johnson said. “This was supposed to be a rebuilding year for us. I can’t exactly blame them, but I knew that we had to stick together to get this win.”

“It’s just so surreal. We weren’t sure what to expect, but we just wanted to go out there and play our game. Everybody stepped up for us. We just were all on the same page. It was all so surreal. It is just a fantastic feeling to be here. The second game, against Grace, was intense, very intense. The girls came to the sideline and they were excited. I had to remind them to calm down and just remain focused. Finish what we started.”

Did they ever.

This year’s team accomplished at lot: The first 10-win season in program history. The first season finishing above .500. The first season of being region champs.

But the Lady Generals are not done.

The state playoffs are set to begin Tuesday in Brunswick. The Lady Generals will take on Veritas at 6 p.m.

If they win that game, they will advance to the second round of the playoffs, which will be played at 7:30 p.m. that same night.

The games will be played with three total matches and to advance, the teams must win two of those three games.

Update on the GCS middle school volleyball team

The middle school squad finished second in the GAPPS district. They made it to the finals and narrowly lost but did finish as the Class A District 2 runners-up for the year.