EL DORADO HILLS, Calif. – Junior outside hitter Sophia Palmeri knocked down 15 kills, including nine in the third set alone, while senior Malia Fat tallied 27 digs, but St. Francis surrendered key scoring runs in the closing stretches of the third and fourth frames in falling to Oak Ridge, 25-18, 25-27, 25-22, 26-24, in a Sierra Foothill League girls' volleyball thriller at Trojan Arena Wednesday night.

The Troubadours slip to 15-4 for the year and 2-4 in SFL play. The Trojans, ranked No. 4 in the Sac-Joaquin Section and No. 1 in Division I, improve to 18-4 overall with a 5-1 league record.

Junior left-sider Hailey Sutton posted a double-double of 14 kills and 18 digs, while junior opposite Gilly Glikman added 10 kills. Senior Mercy Collier added a 6-1-10 attacking chart for a .500 average while providing three service aces. However, SF lost the overall serving battle to its hosts, managing just four aces to the Trojans' 13.

Despite a hot start for the Troubies, Oak Ridge won the opening set with relative ease. Senior Kaya Charles had back-to-back kills to give the Trojans their first lead at 10-8. The margin stretched to five points at 17-12 after a Savanna Ard kill, then OR later established a 24-15 set point. St. Francis fought off three such points before an Ella Hieb setter tip finished the frame, 25-18, for the Trojans.

Oak Ridge carried its momentum into the second, taking a 15-12 thanks in part to three straight points – a kill plus successive aces –from senior middle Madelyn Snyder. Then St. Francis scored four straight to claim a 16-15 edge: two Palmeri kills by the left pin, a Collier kill in a 2 ball, plus a back row attack violation on the OR side.

Still, Charles scored back-to-back kills and Ard served up another ace to put the Trojans back on top, 18-16. That deficit increased to four at 21-17 on Snyder's kill, prompting SF head coach Taryn Campbell to regroup with a timeout. This resulted in five straight Troubie points and a 22-21 lead. Sutton hammered out a kill, Hernandez and Marissa Jensen teamed up for a block and Collier served an ace during this comeback run.

On the next point, Collier had a kill disqualified, tying the second set at 22-all. This created a pattern of Oak Ridge taking a one-point lead followed by SF equalizing: Londyn Welcher's ace followed by Sutton's tool for 23-23, Kelsey Frank's bic followed by Glikman's kill on a five ball to tie at 24-24. Oak Ridge then claimed another set point at 25-24 on a wide shot.  

Staring down the possibility of the Trojans taking a 2-0 match lead, St. Francis finished with three straight points, all involving Palmeri. She tooled the OR right-side block to tie the frame at 25-25, teamed with Collier for a block to take a 26-25 lead, then scored on another tool to win it, 27-25.

Palmeri continued to dominate offensively into the third, scoring five kills in a 9-6 Troubie start. She added three more kills followed by a Kelsey Granner ace to keep SF up by three at 13-10. Jensen and Glikman later combined on a block to maintain that margin, 17-14, only for Oak Ridge to score four straight to regain a lead of 18-17. The two teams tied up four more times down the final stretch of that third set, with Palmeri and Sutton scoring consecutive tools to make it 22-22. Frank followed with an unlikely kill for ORHS, when her down ball never came back. That ended up as the first of three straight to finish the third-set win for the Trojans.

The fourth set proved even more hotly contested than the third, with a staggering 17 ties and nine lead changes. Sutton had five of her kills in this stanza, while Palmeri and Hernandez adding three apiece. St. Francis looked like it might force a fifth set when Collier's solo stuff against Charles took a 22-21 lead. Hiedi Vu's next serve coaxed a pass to float back to the net into the waiting hands of Hernandez, who made a two-handed tap for her third kill and the 23rd Troubie point.  

Unfortunately for St. Francis, Oak Ridge righted the ship with four kills from four different players in a 5-1 finish to the match. Charles tied it up at 24-24, Hieb's tip made it a 25-24 match point, and Snyder finished with a kill from the left side to close out the match.

The St. Francis-Oak Ridge rivalry is so storied that it includes five meetings in Sac-Joaquin Section championship finals, with the Troubies winning the 2012 and 2019 title matches. The series has favored the Trojans of late, with nine straight wins and three consecutive in SFL play.

Prior to the varsity showdown, the junior varsity and frosh teams paired off in simultaneous matches. St. Francis easily won the JV match, 25-8, 25-19. Meanwhile, the frosh came back from a first-set loss to win, 15-25, 25-22, 15-13.

The Troubie JV returns to action as part of the SFL home tripleheader with Davis on Monday. However, the varsity and froshies head to tournaments on Saturday: varsity at its version of the Carmichael Invitational (CIVT), frosh to its edition of the 17th Stockton Classic. Opponents and match times have yet to be announced for either event.