STOCKTON, Calif. – Senior outside hitter Olivia Mlikotin and junior opposite Caroline Foraker each tallied 17 kills while senior middle blocker Sophia Garza posted 11 kills, a .500 hitting average, and four block assists, boosting St. Francis to a five-set, 25-20, 25-22, 22-25, 21-25, 15-12 marathon victory over top-seeded St. Mary's in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I semifinal around Tuesday night.
The 23-7 Troubadours advance to the section championship match for the 21st time in program history, and look to capture their 14th all-time banner.
Foraker committed only two attacking errors on 54 total attempts for a .278 clip in her match, while Mlikotin led all SFHS hitters with 59 swings. Garza hit 11-2-18 for her .500 success rate, scoring three kills in the fifth-set finale alone. Junior libero Jacqueline Smith picked up a team-leading 34 digs, surpassing her previous career high of 29 from a three-set win against Davis on October 6. Mlikotin had 21 digs of her own, marking a personal best in her Troubie varsity career. Setter Kelsey Magley added 17 digs, while Garza and Foraker had 13 each, giving SF five players in double figures.
The match featured a total of 40 ties and 25 total lead changes, with the second set featuring the most inflection points: the Troubies and Rams locked up 14 times and exchanged leads 11 times.
"I'm just really proud of these kids. They played for each other and worked hard," said SF head coach Alynn Wright. "That Saint Mary's team is a very good team, they're very disciplined. They're very scrappy. This gym is hard to play in. I'm very proud of the way we managed the crowd, the game, the officials. They didn't let too many things rattle them."
St. Francis fell into a slight hole in the first, when Audrey Arnaudo's blast from the left pin gave the hosts a 12-10 advantage. The Troubies scored 10 of the next 12, including three straight Mlikotin kills, to forge an 18-13 edge. The Rams closed the gap to 21-20 thanks to continued Arnaudo offense, but St. Francis scored four straight to finish: a St. Mary's attacking error, a Garza kill on a one set, a Charlise Rowe tip, and the finisher from Foraker.
The second set saw the wildest swings, with SF moving ahead by a 13-10 lead after Mlikotin's hit off tape found some open court in the opposite corner. The team captain had six kills in the frame, equalizing at 21-21 on a shoot, then hammering down a four ball to even the score at 22-22. Again, the Troubies closed out with a mini-run, culminating with Foraker's slide for the 25th.
Facing a 2-0 match deficit, St. Mary's battled to comeback wins in each of the third and fourth, thanks to the hitting of Arnaudo and Keely Hummel and strong floor defense by libero Meghan Kagehiro. The Troubies led, 16-11, late in the third before a 6-1 Ram run filled the gap to a 17-17 tie. Mlikotin tooled her foe's right-side block to give SF an 18-17 lead, but that proved to be the last for the Troubies in the stanza. Senior Caprisa Brock put down a kill to make it 24-22 for the Rams, then McKenzie Dobbins served up an ace to help her team fend off the sweep.
St. Francis fell into an early hole in the fourth, with Brock and Eliana Williams teaming up for a block to make it 6-2 in the Rams' favor. Garza knocked down a kill then teamed with Magley for a block to ignite a comeback, then senior outside hitter Sofia Alkire served up back-to-back aces to craft a 10-9 Troubie lead. Two Ram attack errors and a Smith ace helped extend that advantage to 14-10, prompting coach Garren Allala to call a timeout. His team responded with four straight out of the break, then later took the lead at 22-18 on consecutive Arnaudo kills and two Kagehiro aces.
Foraker pounded out two kills on the right side to bring St. Francis back to within two but the Troubies never recovered. Arnaudo continued to fire, blasting the winner at 25-21 to even the match and force the rubber set.
St. Mary's continued its momentum into the fifth, with back-to-back solo stuffs against the Troubies. Enter Garza, who slammed back a stray free ball, then put away two Magley quick sets to equalize at 6-6. The Rams regained two two-point leads at 8-6 and 9-7, but SF managed to fight back to a 10-10 tie on Mlikotin's offspeed shot. She then served up an ace that handcuffed Isabella Gutierrez for the 11-10 go-ahead.
St. Francis establish a triple match point on three straight scores: a double hit by the Ram setter, a Magley and Foraker right-side block and a service ace by junior middle Lily Zeff, setting the board at 14-11. Garza had a chance to close the win when a down ball found its way into her wheelhouse, but she crossed the tape in her attempt for the kill. Instead, it took a ball-handling error by setter Ella Rishwain to complete the fifth set for the Troubies.
Tuesday's match marked the first time St. Francis had gone to a fifth set in 2022. In fact, the team had only entered the fourth frame on two occasions: a 3-1 win at Granite Bay on August 30, and a 3-1 loss to Pleasant Grove for the team's lone league setback.
"This was the first time they've done that this year," said Wright, referring to a fifth set. "They weren't going to have the play end on them. They did everything they possibly could to play for their team, and that made the difference. They all had some errors but they did a better job letting those errors go."
St. Francis will face the winner of the Oak Ridge-Pitman matchup from the opposite semifinal. The championship match will start at 7 p.m. at Natomas High. It will become the eighth time the Troubies have reached the Division I title match since 2010, the year the program moved up to that level. If the Trojans win, Saturday's final will serve as the fourth meeting between SFHS and ORHS for a volleyball championship.
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