ELK GROVE, Calif. — Junior outside hitter Sofia Alkire tallied a double-double of 13 digs and a team-leading 13 kills to lift third-seeded St. Francis to a 25-16, 25-21, 25-21 sweep of sixth-seeded St. Mary's in the quarterfinal round of the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Div. I girls volleyball tournament Thursday night.
The Troubadours improve to 24-8 for the season.
Alkire was one of four players with double-digit floor defense, with setter Carli Padilla notching a team-best 15 digs, libero Justine Pulmones adding another 15 and outside hitter Olivia Mlikotin chipping in another 13. Mlikotin also recorded a double-double, providing 11 kills in the three sets. Junior Mila Stojakovic, normally a pin hitter, stepped in at middle blocker in the absence of Sophia Garza. She responded with 6-0-9 hitting.
"I thought St. Mary's played some unbelievable defense," said SFHS head coach Alynn Wright. "I thought in the first set, we took care of business really well. We know what their plan was and what they did, and we did a really good job following our game plan."
"All in all, I'm so proud of the girls. I'm proud of the way they rallied around each other, and how they rallied around Mila playing middle. She did a great job, hitting over .600. And I thought our defense was pretty solid, too. They were scrappy at times, and we had that big, big dig by Caroline [Foraker] in the third set when it was really tight. You could feel the momentum shift on that one dig."
St. Francis will now travel to Delta League rival Cosumnes Oaks, which defeated No. 7-seed Folsom High by scores 25-21, 22-25, 25-19, 23-25, 15-9. The Troubies lost to the Wolfpack in a Senior Night heartbreaker back on October 18, but were missing Stojakovic and Foraker at the time. Tickets for Tuesday night's match are available only via the GoFan website and/or app at https://gofan.co/app/school/CIFSJS.
St. Francis is the defending SJS champion, having captured its 13th such title back in 2019. There was no 2020 section tourney due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
