SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Sophomore Sophia Palmeri posted 16 kills and a .342 hitting average while fellow 10th-grader Hailey Sutton added a double-double of 13 kills and 11 digs, but St. Francis came up just short in a five-set, 25-20, 21-25, 15-25, 32-30, 15-8 marathon loss to Folsom in the varsity nightcap of a Sierra Foothill League girls' volleyball tripleheader Wednesday night.
The Troubadours slip to 9-5 for the year and 0-2 in the SFL.
Overall, St. Francis hit .297 as a team, with the setting platoon of Nika Jafari and Katie Kramer running the offense with 24 and 16 assists, respectively. Jafari also led the Troubies with five aces, two of which came in a crucial 7-1 finish to the second set. Junior Marissa Jensen also enjoyed a solid night with five kills on eight swings. Two of those points, plus a block assist with senior Gabrielle Rowe, highlighted a 6-1 close to SF's third-set victory.
Junior Mercy Collier hit an errorless 7-for-10 while sophomore Gilly Glikman notched nine overall kills, helping St. Francis improve from the .029 team hitting average at Rocklin on Monday to a robust .297 on Wednesday. That clip improves to .336 (48 kills, seven errors) when excluding the first-set loss.
The Troubies struggled to contain Folsom prospect Avery Masters, who scored 12 of her team's 25 points in the opener. They trailed by as much as 12 after Masters' zero block set up an unassisted kill, lifting the Bulldogs to a 20-8 edge; and 23-12, in the wake of a shot sailing long. However, SF regrouped to score eight of the next nine. Folsom senior Brooklyn Graham finally put down the game-winner to give her a team the 1-0 match lead, but the invigorated offense propelled SF for the rest of the match.
The Bulldogs largely stayed in front of their hosts early in the second, with back-to-back Masters kills crafting a 15-13 lead. St. Francis managed to tie the set six times, with a stray Folsom set sending Nika Jafari to the service line with a 21-21 tie. In all, that side out began a run of 11 total unanswered points into the third set. Kills by Collier and Palmeri plus the two Jafari aces finished the second, then two more Palmeri kills gave SF a 6-0 start to the next stanza.
Like Masters did for Folsom, Palmeri dominated the third for St. Francis. She tooled the Folsom right-side block three more times in the set, teamed with Jensen on a block, then immediately followed with a solo stuff to make it 13-7. Jensen led the way with the 6-1 finish, yet Palmeri aided the cause with her defense. A spectacular touch allowed Jensen to score set point at 24-15, then Rowe and Jensen combined on yet another block for the win.
Palmeri continued with five more kills in the fourth, but that set also saw Folsom regain some of the momentum from its dominating start. The two teams battled to an astounding 23 ties. St. Francis established match points at 26-25, on Sutton's ace; 27-26, on a Bulldog service error; plus both 28-27 and 29-28, each on Palmeri kills. Folsom answered each to prolong the frame, then held a 30-29 edge, when Madeline Seabury's off-tape shot managed to find the floor among the SF defense. Sutton responded with big four ball to equalize at 30-30, only to have the Bulldogs pick off the final two. Seabury came through again with a tool to complete the 32-30 win.
Unfortunately for St. Francis, Folsom continued to roll through the rubber set. Libero Khloe Wong served consecutive aces in a 5-1 start. Jensen's solo block brought the Troubies to within three at 7-4, but that proved to be the closest margin in the finale. Bulldog senior Lindsey Olsen turned back a stray set on the next ball while a Seabury serve sailed untouched through the SF receiving corps to bump the lead back to five at 9-4, then Jamzin Ojo scored two kills down the stretch to complete the win.
Wednesday's thriller marked the third straight win in the Bulldog-Troubadour series, and the second in five sets.
The varsity showdown followed two straight-set matches. The St. Francis junior varsity rolled to a 25-13, 25-20 victory. Sophomores Lili Haddad and Layla Hernandez posted kills totals of 11 and eight, respectively, helping the Troubies improve to a 11-0 season record.
To start the action, the SF frosh lost by identical scores of 25-21, 25-21. Oddly, a Troubie squad that usually dominates at the service line found itself on the receiving end of 12 Bulldog aces. Nonetheless, SF managed to tie each set late – 21-21 in the first and 20-20 in the second – before Folsom wrapped up wins in both.
St. Francis varsity and JV will rest until Monday's 4:30 triple set with Granite Bay. The Troubadour froshies, who took last weekend off, will head to the San Joaquin Valley for Saturday's Stockton Classic. They will face Lodi at 8 a.m. followed by California at 10 a.m. as one of the top seeds at the Tokay High site. The other No. 1 seeds comprise Rocklin, Marin Catholic and St. Mary's. Bracket play will then start at noon.
