After a tough non-district season facing five top 6A schools, girls’ basketball will take on McKinney North in the opening round of the 5A playoffs at McKinney Boyd starting at 7:00 p.m Monday.

Last year, the Redhawks lost in the Regional Final but did so without the services of junior Randi Thompson who remains a critical part of the team going into playoffs.

“I expect her to just be competitive and to compete,” assistant girls’ basketball coach Rochelle Vaughn said. “She plays hard. I think she does so much for us that she draws a lot of attention from the other opponents. So when she does look to score and get her teammates involved, it helps us out overall.”

In her last season, senior Katelyn Burtch is ready for a run at state.

“Playoff season is my favorite time of basketball season,” senior Katelyn Burtch said. “Everything you do is so important and so crucial to the outcome that it’s so much fun. With that, it makes me a little anxious and a little nervous. Overall I’m really excited about it. I just want it to be the best one we’ve had. I trust my teammates so much that I’m really confident going into tonight.”

Despite the nervous that can come with playoff season, junior Makenzi Glover is ready for Monday’s game.

“Our goal is always to make playoffs,” junior Makenzi Glover said. “We are really happy about this, we’re excited. We’re really hoping to make a deep playoff run this year. Any game you’re going to be nervous for but all of us together is just really excited. Obviously we want to win. I think we are going to do pretty good tonight. We’ve been scouting for the past 3-4 days. I think we’re really prepared for tonight so it should be good.”