VALDOSTA – The Valdosta Wildcats volleyball team (23-7) used a convincing third set to close out rival Lowndes (19-9) 2-1 Thursday night.

The first two sets were tight as Lowndes squeezed past Valdosta 28-26 in the first set and Valdosta fought back to take the second 25-21.

In the third set, Valdosta found another gear.

The ‘Cats rushed out to a 9-0 lead with a flurry of aces and kills that put the Vikings on their proverbial heels immediately.

“A lot of times, when you have that excessive energy, it’s like the players don’t believe they can do any wrong,” VHS volleyball coach Anna McCall said. “They just play like they’re supposed to play all the time – they hit the ball, they pass the ball, they don’t give up and Lowndes made some mistakes and that just added more fuel to the fire. We just kept going. It was unreal.

An ace by Valdosta’s Mason Holtzclaw opened up an 11-1 lead, but the Vikings responded quickly with back-to-back blocks by Otaifo Esenabhalu to make it 11-3.

Playing with boundless energy, Valdosta pushed it to 12-3 – forcing Lowndes head coach Autumn Bell to call timeout.

“I think, in that third set, we kind of let the moment of the rivalry, the region matchup…we didn’t let our game shine,” Bell said. “We let the moment overtake us and that’s okay. We’ve got practice in the morning and we’re going to work it out.

“Our girls have been working really hard and Valdosta has also been working really hard. It just comes down to, tonight, we couldn’t pass. If you can’t pass, you can’t run an offense. We just didn’t make it easy on ourselves. We put ourselves in those holes and like I said, we’re going to work through those.”

A kill by senior Keona Martin made it 13-3 for Valdosta, putting them two points away from the win.

The Vikings managed to reel off a run of five consecutive points highlighted by a lengthy rally that ended in an emphatic spike by Kaylan McConnehead to pull the Vikings within striking distance at 13-8.

The momentum dissipated as libero Milly Prince put her serve into the net for an error to give Valdosta a 14-8 lead.

A service winner by Olivia Shen won it for Valdosta, who evened the season series and avenged a 2-0 loss at Lowndes back on Sept. 8.

“We knew it was do or die,” McCall said. “We lost to them last time and we were like, ‘We have to do it. There’s no other way.’ We watched film, we prepared, we did some motivational things, we prayed a lot. We prayed all week. I was praying the entire game. We couldn’t do anything but play our game.

“Lowndes is good. We’re good. If both teams play their game, it could go either way. It was just one of those games that you have to show up. You have to show up.”

Valdosta also hosted the Camden Wildcats in the region play date, defeating the ‘Cats of a different color 2-0 in the 5 p.m. opener. Lowndes also swept Camden 2-0.

With two wins Thursday, Valdosta now moves into third behind Richmond Hill and Lowndes in Region 1-7A. Valdosta’s win over Lowndes was also the first blemish on the Vikings’ region record all season.

“It’s the confidence of knowing you can beat them,” McCall said of evening the season series with Lowndes. “If you can beat them, you can beat Richmond Hill. If you can beat them, you can go third, fourth round and state. You’ve just got to believe. If you have heart and you believe, there’s no stopping you.”

UP NEXT

Valdosta hosts Perry and Maclay Tuesday, Sept. 27. The Perry match begins at 5 p.m. with the Maclay match following at 7 p.m.

Lowndes travels to Moultrie to face Colquitt and Richmond Hill in a region play date Tuesday, Sept. 27.