SHS girls advance

The Sneads Lady Pirates took a four-set road victory over the Baker Lady Gators Wednesday night to advance to the second round of the 2A state playoffs.

After dropping the first set 25-21, Sneads responded by crushing Baker 25-9 in the second to even things up.

The Lady Pirates edged by Baker 25-22 and 25-23 in the third and fourth sets to clinch the victory.

Sneads next goes to Blountstown to take on the Lady Tigers Tuesday in a rematch of the Oct. 31 district title match. Lady Pirates coach Sheila Roberts said she was pleased with how her team responded after dropping the first set, but not with the slow start to the match.

“We were ahead a good part of the first game, but we just fell apart there,” the coach said. “I told them that letting this team come back and beat you is ridiculous. They’re better than that. But then we came back and whipped them in the second game. Then we just went back and forth in the final two.”

Megan Smith led the Lady Pirates with 16 kills for the night, with Ashley Smith adding 10, Kara Alford nine and Jordan Jackson six, as well as two block kills. Smith also added 10 aces.

“She played a great game,” Roberts said of Smith. “She was very effective in the front row, but especially in the back row when we needed her.”

Tiffany Guerra led the team with 33 assists.

“Tiffany made good decisions all night,” the coach said. “She did a lot of good stuff. We need her to keep doing that.”

Roberts said she was pleased with the win, but she is still not happy with the number of self-inflicted wounds by her team.

“We really have to clean up our game,” the coach said. “The girls will play really well, then we’ll make a bunch of unforced errors that hurt us. We’ve got to limit those if we’re going to go as far as we’d like to go.”

Sneads improved to 25-5 on the season with the victory. The Lady Pirates have been dominant for much of the season, but Roberts said her team is still just scratching the surface of how good it can be.

“I think after the girls see the stats (from Wednesday’s game), it’s going to sink in that we’re just giving up too many points to our opponents,” the coach said.

“I was pleased with our hitting, still. It was well-rounded. It was not just one person, but it was spread out. If we clean up our errors, there’s no telling how far they can go.”