SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Sophomores Gilly Glikman and Sophia Palmeri combined for 21 kills and just one attacking error while junior libero Malia Fat collected a career-high 23 digs, helping seventh-seeded St. Francis roll to a 25-9, 25-14, 25-7 sweep against 10th-seeded Thomas Downey in the first round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I girls' volleyball championship tournament Tuesday night.
The Troubies improve to 23-12 for the season. The Knights finish their year with a 26-13 overall mark.
Glikman posted 12 kills with one miscue on only 13 swings for an .846 success rate, improving on the 6-for-10 (.600) line she posted against Ripon earlier in October. Palmeri, already her team's leader in attack average, went 10-for-21 with no errors for a .476 mark. That's her most efficient night for a match with at least 20 swings since going 19-1-32 (.562), also against Ripon. Fat's 23 digs improved on her previous best of 18, set twice in five-set matches with Granite Bay (Sept. 16) and Del Oro (Oct. 16) during the Sierra Foothill League season.
As a team, St. Francis hit .423 in each of the first and third sets, with setters Nika Jafari (19 assists) and Sydney Chow (12) handling the majority of setting duties. With 62 digs, the Troubies averaged more than 20 gets per set for the fifth time in 2024. Perhaps most impressively, the 30 points against is SF's best defensive performance for a best-of-five match this season, and the lowest total by an opponent since a 25-12, 25-10, 25-8 against Davis back on October 3, 2019. (That Troubie team also swept Elk Grove by scores of 4, 8 and 16 for 28 points on Sept. 17, 2019.)
Glikman hit six kills in the first set while junior Chloe Johnson served up four aces, including three in a 10-0 run that propelled SF to a 11-1 start. Johnson also got a chance to show off her offensive skills with kills in each of the first and second sets. The Troubies were equally dominant in the third, with sophomore Hailey Sutton firing all five of her kills in that frame. Overall, SF committed just five errors in those two sets.
The second set saw the Troubadours' only minor skids, with TD's Izzy Altadonna serving up an ace and two SF tips missing their mark in an initial 4-1 hole. But Glikman responded with two kills and Knights' kills leader Izzy Watson missed on back-to-back hits in a 7-0 run that put SF back on top, 9-4. Palmeri then knocked down two kills and served consecutive aces to stretch that lead to 16-7.
Watson scored her fifth kill on a tool and libero Alexis Monroy sneaked in an ace in a run of six unanswered to get Downey back to within a three-point deficit at 16-13. Palmeri ended that stretch when her tip from the back row managed to fall into Knight territory, igniting another 7-0 Troubie run. Gabrielle Rowe had three kills among that seven, teaming with Isabella Ramos on two zero blocks before knocking down a hit at 20-13. Rowe later sent a cross-court shot that just caught the opposite corner of the court to make it 22-13, then followed up on the next point for the 23rd.
The final set allowed head coach Taryn Campbell to spread the touches to other parts of her roster, resulting in Sutton's five kills, four digs and a 5-0 serving run from Ellie Carpenter, plus back-to-back kills from opposite Jessica Dillie down the final stretch of the match. The Troubies also caught a glimpse of the future, as Alli MacDonald – a freshman call-up from the JV squad – scored her first varsity kill for the 21st point of the third. Jafari also provided all three of her service aces in that final stanza.
The win over Downey advances St. Francis to the second round, where a familiar foe awaits: SFL league-mate Folsom swept past 15th-seeded Tokay, and will host the Troubadours on Thursday. The Bulldogs won both matchups in 2024, but SF managed to hit .297 in a five-set thriller back on September 11.
Thursday's quarterfinal takes place at 6 p.m. Tickets are available only through GoFan (https://gofan.co/app/school/CIFSJS), with a direct link to the match expected to appear on Wednesday.
