MERCED, Calif. – St. Francis defeated Golden Valley, Le Grand, Livingston and Tokay in succession, each in straight sets, to wrap Day 1 action at the Central California Classic girls' varsity volleyball tournament at GV Friday night. The two-day tournament features 20 schools scattered at four schools: Golden Valley, Buhach Colony, El Capitan and Merced.

The Troubadours improve to 4-2 for the season.

St. Francis opened the evening with a 25-21, 25-16 sweep of the host Cougars, followed with a 25-12, 25-11 victory against the Bulldogs, then took down the Wolves by scores of 25-8, 25-12, before finishing the night with a 25-2, 25-22 drubbing of the Tigers. As a team, the Troubies enjoyed their most efficient attacking against Livingston, as senior Gabrielle Rowe's 8-for-11 offense leading the way to a .462 success rate (21 kills, three errors).

For the session, sophomore Sophia Palmeri led St. Francis offensively with 17 kills and no errors in 36 swings for a thunderous .472 success rate. However, different players stepped up in different matches: senior Jessica Dillie led with six kills on 19 attempts against GV, Layla Alexander hit 4-0-7 against Le Grand then had five kills against Tokay, Rowe paced the offense versus Livingston, while Palmeri, Hailey Sutton, Mercy Collier and Gilly Glikman combined for an errorless 11 kills on 18 attempts from left to right. 

One of most impressive performances belonged to senior setter Nika Jafari, who posted five aces in a stretch of 18 straight points at the service line in the 25-2 opener against Tokay in the nightcap.

The perfect 4-0 mark will keep St. Francis at Golden Valley during Saturday's Gold Division session. The Troubies will play at 8:30 and 10:30 in the morning followed by a 12:30 match against the top team from the El Cap site. The two best teams from the Gold pools will square off for the tourney championship at 2:45 p.m.