SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Sophomore opposite Gilly Glikman posted career highs of 14 kills and 41 attacks while senior Gabrielle Rowe provided six blocks to help St. Francis fight back from a 2-0 match deficit, but visiting Del Oro dominated the early going of the fifth frame in a Sierra Foothill League girls' varsity volleyball match Wednesday night. The Troubies lost by scores of 26-24, 25-23, 18-25, 23-25, 15-9.
The Troubadours slip to 21-11 for the year and even their league mark to 6-6. The Golden Eagles improve to 13-12 and 7-5 in SFL play. The match broke the fourth-place tie in the middle of the league standings. DO pulls within one win of third-place Oak Ridge (8-4) while SF falls to fifth, although well ahead of sixth-place Granite Bay (3-9).
Sophomore outside hitters Hailey Sutton and Sophia Palmeri each had 11 kills, but the most impressive stats on the boxscore came on the defensive end. Glikman contributed on another four blocks, with the Troubies totaling 13 in the match. Furthermore, St. Francis scooped up 114 digs – almost 23 per set – with Chloe Johnson leading the way with 22 such saves. Palmeri had 19, setter Nika Jafari and libero Malia Fat finished with 18 each, and Sutton added 15 for five players in double digits. Fat also scored points from the service line, accounting for three of the team's six aces.
St. Francis nearly faced the match being settled in the fourth, with Sydney Weber's kill giving DO a 22-21 lead late in the set. However, the Troubies scored four of the next five, with Mercy Collier's kill equalizing at 22-22. Setter Sydney Chow came up with a dig while literally sitting on the floor, transitioning to a Palmeri kill for the 23rd point. Rowe and junior middle Marissa Jensen teamed up on a block for a 24-23 set point, the Jensen earned a rare assist by setting Glikman by the right pin for the kill and the 25th point.
Nevertheless, the Golden Eagles reclaimed the momentum to start the fifth and deciding frame. Junior Sophia Sampson scored three kills in an 8-1 DO start to the rubber set, then maintained at least a four-point lead the rest of the way in finishing the victory.
The varsity match followed a 25-18, 25-18 sweep by the St. Francis junior varsity, which improves to 28-2 for the year and 12-0 against SFL foes. The Troubie frosh suffered a similar fate as their varsity sisters: losing a 25-21 first set, storming back to a commanding 25-9 victory in the second, then losing an 18-16 thriller in the finale. Following a three-set loss to Whitney, Wednesday's setback marks the first time the St. Francis freshman program has lost back-to-back matches since the 2022 Chris Craft Invite at Oak Ridge, dropping the Troubies to 24-7 for the year.
All three SF squads enter the final week of league play, heading to Oak Ridge for a tripleheader on Monday. Those matches start 30 minutes later than the usual SFL volleyball date, with JV and frosh playing at 6 p.m. and varsity following at 7 p.m.
