The seven tries to five defeat was good enough to earn the Bears a point and carry them to the brink of the play-offs. They only need to secure one point from their final game at Wasps to set-up a semi-final shoot-out against top of the table Gloucester-Hartpury.
The Bears led the champions 24-19 at the break and were still level pegging at 31-31 after 62 minutes. Wales wing Courtney Keight scored a super solo effort and Snowsill ended up with 13 points in the match.
“You never like conceding 48 points, but some of the inter-play between forwards and backs was the best we’ve seen all season. We could have come away with two points at the end and we probably need to be a bit smarter,” said Bears head coach Dave Ward.
“Snowy was class for us, outstanding. Her goalkicking was the best I’ve ever seen it and she led the team brilliantly.
“We’ve now got to go to Wasps and get at least a point to make the play-offs. It’s still in our hands and then hopefully we can look forward to a semi-final.”
Gloucester-Hartpury ensured they will finish on top of the table, and have a home semi-final, thanks to a 48-14 win over Sale Sharks at Richmond. That kept them six points clear of second placed Exeter Chiefs, who they host on the last day of the regular season.
It will still be an important game for Exeter because they need to win to stop Saracens bagging the second home play-off semi-final.
Lisa Neumann and Kelsey Jones were both among the try scorers for the west country side and Lleucu George chipped in with four conversions.
