SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Junior outside hitter Hailey Sutton posted team highs of 11 kills and three aces while fellow left-sider Sophia Palmeri added nine kills and a .348 hitting average, but senior middle blocker Marissa Jensen stole the show by dominating the net game with a career-high 10 blocks to lead St. Francis to a 25-21, 25-17, 26-24 sweep of visiting El Capitan in a Sac-Joaquin Section Division II girls' volleyball quarterfinal match Thursday night.
The fifth-seeded Troubadours improve to 32-7 for the season and advance to Tuesday's semifinal against the tourney's top seed and fellow Sierra Foothill League member Rocklin. The Gauchos finish their season at 24-11 overall.
Jensen's net defense more than doubles her previous high of four, set at Folsom in last year's SJS playoffs. She had nine block assists, then she won a joust to complete St. Francis' comeback from an early deficit for a solo stuff. Six of Jensen's blocks came in the opening set: three in tandem with Gilly Glikman during a 5-0 start, a fourth with Glikman for her team's 17th point, one with Sutton for a 24-21 set point, then a fifth collab with Glikman for the winner.
Overall, St. Francis totaled 14 team blocks. Glikman finished with seven assists, Layla Hernandez and Mercy Collier each had four, plus Sutton took part in two.
Each of the first two sets began with a 5-0 Troubie lead, although El Cap managed to take a one-point lead of 11-10 after Yalizbette Lua scored three kills in a run of six unanswered. Sutton then had two kills and an ace to regain a lead of 16-13, with the fourth Glikman/Jensen making it four straight points and a 17-3 edge.
The Troubies led wire to wire in the second, although Gaucho senior Jordynn Middleton's tip did pull her team to within a two-point deficit at 9-7. St. Francis answered that with seven consecutive, with Glikman firing two kills and scoring another block assist – with Jensen, no less – for a 15-7 edge. Senior Gigi Dickerson also served up an ace as part of that run. SF improved to as much as a 10-point advantage after Sutton's step-back tool made it 19-9, and held at least a seven-point cushion the rest of the way.
However, the Gauchos seized momentum in the third by winning six of the first seven points. Senior Sophie Fernandez served up two aces for El Cap in that start, with the Troubies stumbling to an attack error and a back-row block violation of their own. Later facing an 11-6 hole, Sutton scored two aces and three kills during a comeback to 14-13. Jensen's joust in the middle of the tape equalized the frame at 14-14, then Palmeri put down a monster kill for the go-ahead at 15-14.
Palmeri scored five more kills down the final stretch while Kelsey Granner and Sutton chipped in aces, but the Gauchos refused to go down quietly. Lua and Fernandez each scored to pull El Cap to within a 23-22 margin, coaxing SF head coach Taryn Campbell to a timeout. Setter Anushka Elwin tied up the frame at 23-all with deep setter dump. The next Gaucho serve went just long for a 24-23 SF set point. While a misplayed down ball allowed EC to tie the set at 24-24, setter Katie Kramer delivered her 21st and 22nd assists of the match to Hernandez and Palmeri for back-to-back kills in completing the sweep.
Tuesday's semifinal marks the Troubies' third meeting with Rocklin (32-4), which has not lost a set since dropping a 3-0 sweep to Folsom on October 8 – its only SFL loss. The Thunder's run of 10 straight-set victories includes a 25-10, 25-8, 25-15 first-round rout of Atwater followed by a 25-21, 25-16, 25-19 sweep of No. 8-seeded Vacaville on Thursday night.
Rocklin has won seven of its last eight meetings with St. Francis, with the lone setback being the Troubies' 3-0 mild upset in the SJS tournament almost exactly three years ago.
Tuesday's match time is 6 p.m. Tickets are available exclusively through GoFan.
