GRANITE BAY, Calif. – Sophomore Sophia Palmeri and senior Layla Alexander combined for 30 kills and a .446 attack average to lead St. Francis to a four-set, 25-22, 25-14, 22-25, 25-18 victory over Granite Bay in the varsity half of a Sierra Foothill League girls' volleyball tripleheader Wednesday night.
The Troubadours improve to 20-10 for the season and even their league record to 5-5, maintaining at least a share of fourth place pending Del Oro's match with Oak Ridge. The Grizzlies slip to 13-14 overall with a 3-7 mark in SFL play.
Palmeri struck down a career-high 22 kills with just four errors on a team-leading 39 swings for a .462 clip. Alexander came off the bench in the second set, and responded with an 8-1-17 hitting chart for the remainder of the match. Along with offensive contributions from Isabella Ramos (4-0-6), Marissa Jensen (3-0-5), Gabrielle Rowe (5-1-13) and Gilly Glikman (8-3-21), St. Francis hit .346 behind the setting tandem of Nika Jafari and Sydney Chow. That marks the Troubies' most efficient match in league play, and their best single-match success rate since hitting .348 against Gregori at the Central California Classic back on September 7.
St. Francis also had 12 aces with just three service errors, with Mana Jafari (5), Nika Jafari (3), Chow (2) and libero Malia Fat (2) accounting for the dozen.
Oddly, SF went 38 points before taking its first lead, with Palmeri earning a free kill on a Grizzly net violation to make it 20-19 in the first. She followed with another kill, then joined Rowe and Mercy Collier as part of a triple block to extend the lead to 22-19. GB battled back to a 22-22 tie, only to have Palmeri's shot take a friendly roll across the tape for another kill. She and Glikman scored in succession to complete the first set win.
Palmeri continued to roll offensively in the second, posting seven kills and a block to lead the Troubies to their most decisive set. St. Francis never trailed in that frame, with Rowe contributing two kills and a block assist in an overall 8-3 finish. Overall, the Troubies hit a stellar .625 in the second: 15-for-24 with no errors.
However, Granite Bay held off a sweep with tough serving in the third. Junior Lainey Arnold posted back-to-back aces to give the Grizzlies their first lead at 9-7, then added another to bump that margin to 12-7. Alexander had half of her team's 12 kills in that third set, including back-to-back to bring SF to within a point at 23-22. But Arnold's kill put an end to what had been a 6-1 Troubie run, and gave GB a 24-22 set point. A hit into the net finished the stanza for the Grizzlies and forced a fourth.
Although the Troubies' serve receive still allowed four GB aces in the finale, the offense more than made up for it with 15 kills against just two miscues. Palmeri had five of those kills plus a block, while Mana Jafari served two aces in SF's 11-3 start. GB senior Maya Mishchuk smacked down her sixth kill on the fourth to bring her team within a 16-15 deficit, but the Troubies answered by rolling off six of the next seven points for a 22-16 advantage. Glikman had two kills in that flourish, although one with a bit of luck – a Grizzly back-row player caught a piece of a shot apparently sailing long. That gave SF a 20-16 lead instead of narrowing the gap to 19-17.
Sophomore Hailey Sutton put down a ball for a 24-18 match point, then the next GB transition resulted in a tipped ball landing harmlessly in the net.
The win completes a season series sweep for the Troubadours against the Grizzlies, following the five-set victory back on September 16. In fact, St. Francis has won seven straight meetings dating back to 2017.
The Troubie frosh and junior varsity opened the visit with simultaneous straight-set sweeps. The frosh won by scores of 25-9, 25-19 in the auxiliary gym, with JV taking down a 25-13, 25-17 triumph in the main gym. The SF and GB jayvees battled to 10 ties in the second set, including one at 17-17. Then Mackenzie Thomas took part in back-to-back blocks with Sidney Palmeri serving up back-to-back aces in an 8-0 overall finish to the match.
St. Francis returns to action on Monday for a home SFL tripleheader against Whitney. Match times are 4:30, 5:30 and 6:30 p.m.
