ELK GROVE, Calif. – St. Francis picked up five singles wins to come away with a 5-4 victory over Franklin in a girls' tennis dual match Thursday night. The win comes in a week in which several Troubadour players – including three among the top 10 on the team ladder – are out due to illness.

This is the third straight win for SFHS tennis, and the second with a relatively short-handed crew: the Troubies only had enough personnel to fill out two of the doubles courts, resulting in a default at the No. 3 court. St. Francis improves to 8-3 for the year, and 6-3 in Delta League play.

The Troubies enjoyed straight-set wins from No. 2 through No. 5 singles: Norah Zhou, Chloe Garcia, Lucy Phillips, Anna Dinh and Arden Garcia, respectively. 

The No. 2 doubles pairing of Arini Tandon and Claire Allaye-Chan made a strong bid for a sixth team victory, taking the straight set fairly easily at 6-2. However, Franklin's Natalie Fong and Emma Hoang sniped the second set, 7-6, to the tie the match. Then the Wildcat tandem came away with an 11-9 in the one-game tiebreaker.

St. Francis will make the fourth and fifth consecutive trips to the Elk Grove area next week, taking on Pleasant Grove (Tuesday) and Sheldon (Thursday). Both matches begin at 3:45 p.m.

ST. FRANCIS 5, FRANKLIN 4
Franklin High School (Elk Grove, Calif.)

SINGLES
1. Irina Salvador (F) def. Aniyus Pierre (SF), 6-1, 2-6, 6-3
2. Norah Zhou (SF) def. Thu Nguyen (F), 6-0, 6-3
3. Chloe Garcia (SF) def. Sanjitha Govindon (F), 6-2, 6-1
4. Lucy Phillips (SF) def. Alisha Bajaj (F), 6-4, 6-3
5. Anna Dinh (SF) def. Vivian Hoang (F), 6-2, 6-1
6. Arden Garcia (SF) def. Khloe Nguyen (F), 6-2, 6-1

DOUBLES
1. Ella Do/Apreesh Kadey (F) def. Tatum Walbeck/Kate Jones (6-2, 6-1)
2. Natalie Fong/Emma Hoang (F) def. Arini Tandon/Claire Allaye-Chan (F), 2-6, 7-6, 1-0 (11-9)
3. Franklin wins by default.