ELK GROVE, Calif. – Junior opposite Caroline Foraker tallied team highs of 11 kills and four aces, while middle blockers Sophia Garza and Lily Zeff combined for 14 kills on 20 swings between them, as St. Francis swept through Sheldon by scores of 25-15, 25-11, 25-15 in the varsity finale of a Delta League girls' volleyball tripleheader Thursday night.
The varsity win followed straight-set victories by the Troubadour junior varsity (25-9, 25-18) and frosh squad (25-2, 25-7), marking the fourth time that the three teams went a combined 7-0 in a conference tripleheader this year. St. Francis varsity improves to 13-6 for the season, and remains unbeaten at 5-0 in Delta League play.
Garza had seven kills with just one error in 12 attempts for the match. Zeff, a transfer from Oak Ridge who completed her mandatory sit-out period last week, was an errorless 7-for-8 on the attack. Zeff also took part in four of the Troubies' four blocks. For her part, Foraker hit 11-1-24 for a .417 clip, helping St. Francis to a .256 team average. Setters Kate Fobes and Kelsey Magley ran the offense for most of the night, combining for 30 assists. Libero Jackie Smith and Foraker led the floor defense with digs totals of nine and eight, respectively.
Zeff announced her presence in an opening 7-1 run to the match, pounding out back-to-back kills from the middle of the tape, then coming up with a solo stuff at 6-1. Senior outside hitter Olivia Mlikotin had two of her three total aces in that start, while providing three kills to highlight a run of six unanswered later in the frame.
St. Francis pulled away from a relatively tight 11-9 edge in the second set. Foraker had five kills and three aces in that stanza, with four kills in the 14-2 home stretch. Garza's offense and defense jointly hit their strides in the late stages of the second set: she teamed with Sofia Alkire on a left-side block at 16-10, placed an offspeed shot to make it 19-10, then pounded out a one set to adjust the scoreboard to 22-11. Meanwhile, Foraker served up three aces in her team's final five points.
Mlikotin got the Troubies started in the third set win, leading off with a cross-court kill just inside the right sideline. Then after a Magley ace, Mlikotin put back a covered block to make it 3-0. St. Francis never trailed in the third, as Garza iced the match with three kills to establish a 24-15 match point. Smith then served up her fourth ace to complete the sweep.
With Smith and Foraker leading the way, St. Francis totaled 15 aces in the varsity win, continuing a pattern that dominated the two sub-varsity matches. In the frosh victory, the Troubies had 18 aces to only seven kills among their 50 total points, with Colleen Medina serving up five in a 12-1 start to the first set. Ellie Schaerli had four straight aces and Makayla Miller served three consecutive in the second, as the youngest SF squad held a Delta League team to single digits for the sixth time in 2022.
The Troubie jayvees had 16 aces in their win, with freshman Chloe Johnson accounting for five. Gabrielle Rowe broke open the second set with her back-to-back kills in the middle, then Natalie Sandoval tallied three straight aces, ultimately turning a 9-9 tie into a 19-10 lead for SF. Middles Marissa Jensen and Copeland Williams also scored key points in the second set to help complete the sweep.
St. Francis varsity and frosh have the weekend off, while the JV team heads to its edition of the Stockton Classic tourney on Saturday. Pairings and match times have not yet been announced for the event, held at multiple sites.
