Andalusia volleyball coach Angie Grimes said the girls are ready for the Class 4A, Area 3 tournament today after back-to-back weeks of “midterms and homecoming.”

“Now that homecoming is over and midterms are over, we can get in there,” she said.

The Lady Bulldogs are the top-seed heading into today’s area tournament, which starts at 4 p.m. in the volleyball gym. Andalusia will face Headland on court No. 1, and Straughn will face Ashford on court No. 2.

Each match will be the best three-out-of-five format and single elimination. The winners of the first round will play each other on Court No. 1 after the first match. The winner and runner up will advance to the South Region Tournament on Oct. 16 at a site to be determined after the tournament.

Grimes said the keys to success are to “communicate and not make errors.”

“We’ve played them, and there is no secret in how each team plays,” she said. “We focus our offense and defense by what they’re going to do.

“We need to communicate and make sure we don’t have errors,” she said. “That’s what you want to do is make the other team mess up.”

Leading up to the tournament, Grimes said the focus has been on what may come after the area tournament.

“Of course we’ll always work on our offense, but I’m mainly focusing on going into the level of play we’ll see (at the regional tournament),” Grimes said. “We’ll work on our defense, and just keep doing what we’re doing.”