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It’s been a year of reckoning for the Rockdale Lady Bulldogs volleyball team.

Sure, folks will reckon, that’s what happens when you win more games than the last year, but it’s also about the togetherness of the Rockdale (30-16) team.

“This is the best team we’ve had since I’ve been here,” said Rockdale coach Stephen Sansing. “It’s that we are deeper than before, but also because the girls right here know the game.”

What this group of girls probably also know, is that they’re the best Rockdale volleyball team in recent memory.

It didn’t look that way from the start, though.

The team dropped its first three games, and sputtered out to a 5-7 start. But, after putting together a five-game winning streak from that point, the ladies took control of their season’s destiny. Rockdale posted three winning streaks of five games or more, including a regular-season ending five gamer that clinched them second place in region 8S-AAAA.

That propelled them into the 8-AAAA Region Tournament, where they beat another top region foe, Habersham Central, twice. The Lady Bulldogs also dropped a pair of games to top-seeded in-town foe Heritage, but the second loss was arguably the season’s best game — a five-game thriller in the tournament championship.

The championship round showing was enough to send Rockdale into the Georgia State High School Volleyball Tournament, which starts tonight.

The Lady Bulldogs host a perennially strong Dutchtown team (granted, one they easily beat at the start of the season 2-0) at 6 p.m. tonight in the opening round of the state tourney. Heritage also hosts an opening round game across town at 5 p.m. against North Clayton. Should the Lady Bulldogs win, they would either host North Springs on Tuesday at 6 p.m. or travel to play at top-seeded Lakeside at the same time and date.

Either way, it’s already been a banner year for these one-time pups. Now, the very seasoned Lady Dogs are ready to hang some banners from their rafters as proof of how far they’ve come.

“This could be the best year ever for this program,” Sansing said. “We’re practicing hard, we’re ready to play anywhere and anyone, and we’re getting better every game.”