The Quitman Lady Bulldogs split their opening volleyball contests this past week, defeating visiting Harmony in straight sets and the losing in the same manner at Alba-Golden Friday.

While Quitman's young team battled throughout the match, Senior 6-footer CeTara Carter, with more than ample backup from her teammates, dominated much of the play along the front line for the Lady Panthers.

Quitman fell behind 7-2 in the opener before regrouping to gight their way back into the contest. Kacie Raley started the comeback with a kill, Dawn Houck drove a shot between the defense for another point and Madalyn Spears sliced a ball cross court, just inside the line for a third point. When Cammie Hicks found an opening in the defense with a nice soft shot, the Lady Bulldogs were within a point, trailing 7-6.

At that point Alba-Golden took advantage of consecutive unforced errors by Quitman to rebuild their lead, this time by seven points, 13-6.

Quitman temporarily cut that to four points, behind 17-13, before A-G ran off eight consecutive points to win the opener 25-13.

The Lady Panthers took a quick 5-1 lead in the second set only to have Quitman make a nice run of points, tying the game at 7-7 on Molly Tanner's hard hit that went off the blockers and out of bounds.

The game was tied again at 8-8 before Alba-Golden scored four consecutive points to lead 12-8.

Macy Wilson scored and Raley did the same with a block at the net and after the Lady Bulldogs had gotten to within a pair of points, trailing 15-13, Houck's kill and Raley's hit off A-G blockers, tied the game at 15-15.

A-G's Carter then crushed a shot through the defense and when Quitman mishandled another offensive opportunity that was followed by a muffed service reception, A-G was back in control 18-15.

The Lady Bulldogs never recovered from that point and A-G won the game 25-18.

Early in the third and final set it appeared that A-G would dominate. Carter had a block and a kill as the Lady Panthers built leads of 5-1 and 9-4, but Quitman battled to stay alive, trailing 9-6, 15-10 and 18-13 before fighting back to within two points, trailing 18-16.

At that point the defense simply allowed a playable ball to fall untouched for an A-G point and before the Lady Bulldogs could recover the A-G lead was back to five points, leading 23-18 with the help of a great diving save by Caitlin Lennon.

Tanner responded for Quitman with a nice scoring point and Raley scored another on a soft tip at the net, but A-G closed out the match with a hardearned 25-21 victory.

The Lady Bulldogs opened district play with a 3-1 romp over Harmony. Game scores were 25-16, 20-25, 25-20, and 25-18. "This was definitely a team effort. Not one person really led this team, they worked together," Head Coach Ashlee Lingo said. "Harmony is a great defensive team and they never let up."

For the Harmony match, Cammie Hicks had 40 assists, nine digs, two kills: Kaci Raley had 27 digs, nine kills, two aces; Dawn Houck had eight digs, 13 kills; Macy Wilson 26 digs, seven kills; Molly Tanner seven digs, seven kills, one ace; and Madalyn Spears 14 digs, seven kills, one ace.

The JV teams both won against Harmony. Andee Poteet's ladies won 26- 24, 26-28, 25-17 while Cryer's team won in two 25-12 and 25-20.

The Lady Bulldogs travel to Edgewood Tuesday and are at home in a huge match against Mineola this Friday evening. The varsity will play at 4:30 p.m. Frida