SHS makes playoff debut

The Sneads Lady Pirates make their playoff debut tonight in Baker against the Lady Gators in 2A first-round action.

Sneads (24-5) will look to knock Baker out of the playoffs for the second straight year.

The Lady Pirates took a five-set win over the Lady Gators in last year’s regional finals in Sneads.

This time, the game will be set in Baker, after Sneads was upset by Blountstown in the district championship game.

Sneads coach Sheila Roberts said she expects a much different challenge for her team playing on the road.

“I expect a very hostile environment,” the coach said. “Baker brings a lot of fans to away games, so I know they’ll have a full gym (tonight).”

Roberts said Tuesday she was bringing in the Sneads band to play during practice, to get her players prepared for the noise level they’ll deal with in Baker.

“We’ve experienced that before. The girls are trying to prepare mentally for that,” the coach said of the noise.

Both teams should have some added motivation for tonight’s game. Baker is looking for redemption from last year’s loss, and the Lady Pirates are still sore about their surprise loss to Blountstown.

Sneads went through district play unbeaten before falling 15-13 in the fifth set to Blountstown, a team the Lady Pirates had beaten in three sets in their previous meeting.

“That was a real hard pill for us to swallow,” Roberts said of the loss. “It left a really bad taste in our mouths.

“But the girls are excited to play again. I think they’re ready. We’ve had some great practices since that game.”

Roberts said the game could prove to be a wake-up call for her team, which may have been overconfident after breezing through the district season.

“When we got on the bus that night after losing, we didn’t like it,” the coach said. “But there were a lot of little lessons we had to learn from it to make us better as we go further in the playoffs.

“I think it’s good for any team to be reminded that you can be knocked off. When you go undefeated and the wins come easy, you get a false sense of where you might be.”

The Lady Pirates were plagued by errors in the loss to Blountstown, but Roberts said she was happy with the way her team struck the ball.

“As long as we hit the ball as hard and as well as we did against Blountstown without the numerous errors, we should be fine,” the coach said. “What makes that tough is that we have several young players and we’re playing in a very hostile gym. I hope they won’t be rattled by it.”

Roberts compared Baker favorably to Blountstown

“They fight really hard,” the coach said. “They’re very defensive and scrappy, with good diggers. They just don’t have a lot of big power hitters.

“I look for it to be a game a lot like the Blountstown game. Hopefully, the difference will be that we clean up a lot of the errors we made (against Blountstown).”

With a win, the Lady Pirates could get a rematch with the Lady Tigers, who host Northview tonight.