SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Sophomore pin hitters Sophia Palmeri and Hailey Sutton combined for 33 kills and just three errors between them while libero Malia Fat scooped up a career-best 18 digs, helping St. Francis fight back from a 2-1 match deficit to a five-set, 25-19, 22-25, 21-25, 25-21, 15-11 win over Granite Bay to close out a Sierra Foothill League girls' volleyball tripleheader Monday night.

The Troubadours improve to 10-5 for the year and pick up their first SFL win to improve to 1-2.

Palmeri notched a career-best 19 kills, surpassing the 16 from the previous match against Folsom, while committing just one attacking error on 43 swings for a .419 clip. She had five kills and teamed with junior middle Marissa Jensen on a block in the third-set loss, added four kills in the fourth, and had two kills and one of her three aces in the fifth.

Sutton hit 14-2-41 for a .293 success rate, match Palmeri's three aces while narrowly missed being a fourth Troubie with double-figure digs. Fat led the floor defense with 18 digs, with setter Nika Jafari and defensive specialist Mana Jafari finishing with twin totals of 11 apiece. Nika Jafari and fellow senior Sydney Chow handled the majority of reps at setter, helping SF post a .231 hitting average for the match. Nika Jafari also had six aces, as the Troubies totaled 15 but also gave up another 13 on service errors.  

The Troubies never trailed in the opener, with Palmeri posting five kills and an ace. Sophomore opposite Gilly Glikman had two kills in a 7-2 start to the match, and SF maintained a margin of at least three but also never more than six in the frame. Palmeri continued to roll into the second, scoring on two tools and following with a Nika Jafari ace en route to a 3-0 start. However, the Grizzlies answered with three straight on a serving error, a block and a net violation, with the two teams fighting to ties at 4-4, 6-6 and 7-7.

GB junior Alli Powell scored two kills from the middle of the tape to push her team out to a 16-10 lead, although St. Francis later dug itself out of that hole. Mercy Collier finished a one ball and stuffed a Grizzly back-row attempt as part of that comeback, then Sutton's tip ended a scrambling rally to cut the deficit to just 19-18. Sutton followed with another kill to equalize at 19-19, but the Troubadours failed to regain the lead. Granite Bay called timeout, then scored the first two out of the break to eventually equalize with a 25-22 win in the second.

Grizzly senior Maya Mishchuk led the charge in the third, scoring four of her team's first nine points. Palmeri was a bright spot for St. Francis in that set, totaling five kills with a block assist with Jensen, but Granite Bay largely stayed a step ahead of its host. The Troubies tied up the set at 12-12 thanks to an error on the opposite side of the net, but could not take the lead. Senior Haddy Samba worked three kills from the right side for GB down the stretch, including a tool for the game-winner. The Grizzlies held a 2-1 match lead heading into the fourth.

Their backs to the wall, the Troubies forged a 9-6 start to the fourth, although seven of those points came on Granite Bay miscues – including a service error that struck a teammate in the front row. The two teams traded points to tie the set eight times from 10-10 through 17-17, then St. Francis scored six of the next seven. Glikman had back-to-back kills in that stretch, giving her a team a 22-18 edge and its largest lead since the opener. Another Palmeri ace represented the 23rd point, then Sutton pounded out two four sets for the 24th and 25th, forcing the fifth.

SF pulled away late in the rubber set, with Fat coming up with two spectacular digs before Granite Bay's roll shot sputtered halfway up the net at 10-8. Palmeri's final kill and Nika Jafari's final ace later set the board to 12-9. Glikman put away a four ball to make it 13-10, then she teamed with Collier for a 14-10 match point. Glikman nearly had the match-winner but her shot missed a few inches long. Instead, a Sutton tip forced Granite Bay into resorting to a free ball – only to have that ball come up short of the net for the 15th SF tally.

In contrast to the varsity thrills, the St. Francis sub-varsity squads won their respective matches with relatively little resistance. The Troubie frosh swept the Grizzlies with scores of 25-17, 25-19. Outside hitter Delaney McGahan had eight kills while middle hitter Sophie Yiakis had six. Lyla Faruzzi also served up three aces as part of an 11-0 run that pulled SF from an 8-7 deficit to an 18-8 lead in the first.

St. Francis junior varsity also won in straight sets, and by even larger margins: 25-11 and 25-8. Hiedi Vu scored four points on aces plus another on a setter dump during a 9-1 run in the first. Alli MacDonald also had two kills in that stretch. Sidney Palmeri had back-to-back kills thanks to net violations on the other side, then her step-back roll shot fell in for the 25th point.

Then in the second set, the Troubies enjoyed a 17-1 run that turned a close 7-6 lead to a 24-7 match point. Freshman Joie Dickerson posted six aces during that assault, and nearly had a seventh for the match-winner. Instead, her serve barely missed the sideline. Instead, the 25th point came on a GB net violation, giving Reese Tucker the honors of the final kill.  
The JV win improves that team's record to 12-0, with five consecutive by match scores of 2-0. Troubie frosh improves to 10-1 for the year, extending its win streak to five following its title at the Stockton Classic two days earlier.

St. Francis returns to action on Wednesday for an SFL tripleheader at Whitney.