SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Junior pin hitters Hailey Sutton, Sophia Palmeri and Layla Hernandez each finished with double-doubles, with Sutton recording her first match with both 20-plus kills and 20-plus digs, as second-seeded St. Francis captured a four-set, 25-20, 25-27, 25-21, 25-20 win over No. 15-seeded Ripon in a CIF Northern California Region first-round match Tuesday night.

The Troubadours improve to 33-8 for the season, and advance to the Thursday second-round matchup with No. 10 seed Cardinal Newman. The Indians, the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III runner-up, end their year at 28-6.

Sutton posted 21 kills for her best offensive match since a 24-kill performance at Del Oro on October 15. Palmeri notched 16 kills against just four errors on the attack while scooping up 11 digs. Hernandez finished with a 10-2-31 (.258) hitting chart while picking up her first double-digit defensive effort of 10 digs.

In all, five SF players had double-figure digs, with senior libero Malia Fat adding 15 and senior setter Katie Kramer picking up 16. The platoon of Kramer and sophomore Harper Rios finished with 22 and 27 assists, respectively. Kramer and Sutton also had two service aces apiece.

Sutton had six kills in the opening set, including one on each of the first three Troubie points: she found the corner on a hit to start the match, tapped a stray serve reception back into Ripon territory for her second point, then sent back an unassisted kill when a covered block found its way back to her hands. The Troubies never trailed in the opening frame. Senior middle blocker Mercy Collier teamed with Glikman on a block, then knocked down a kill on the next ball as part of an overall 10-2 run that boosted SF to a 16-8 start. Palmeri and Hernandez also supplied steady kills throughout the opener, although it was Chloe Johnson turning an errant set into a kill followed by Kramer's serve getting a friendly roll over the tape that established a 24-17 set point. Ripon answered with three straight points to force a Troubie timeout, but Hernandez delivered the winner from the right pin to complete the win.

The Indians regrouped in a second-set thriller that featured 13 ties and eight lead changes. Sutton served both her aces in this stanza, each time giving SF a lead at 11-10 and 21-10. Ripon senior and Pacific commit Adriana Dorn, who had seven kills in the first set, already had another 14 in the second alone before a rare hitting error gave the Troubies a 24-22 double set point. Making that point even more unusual was that Hernandez served for St. Francis – a role she rarely filled but a sudden necessity with her team running low on substitutions. The Indians fought their way back with five out of the last six. Jazmin Gonzalez and Alayna Sprinkle combined for a block to equalize at 24-24, Dorn's bic made it a 15th kill in the frame for the go-ahead at 25-24. Sophomore Ashlyn Malone served short to give SF a 25th point, but redeemed herself with a tool to make it 26-25 for Ripon. That's when a Troubie tipped ball went long, finishing the set for the Indians and tying the match at 1-1.

Ripon continued to roll into the third. Palmeri had three early kills in the set, but even the third came with the Troubies out of system. The Indians took as much as a 9-7 lead before three Sutton kills and a Gigi Dickerson ace added up to six unanswered SF points and a 13-9 lead. The Troubies extended their margin to as much as six points at 16-10, when Hernandez and Marissa Jensen combined on a right-side block. Dorn, whose attack went temporarily cold in the third, helped pull Ripon back to within a one-point, 18-17 deficit. The two teams battled to ties at 18- and 19-all, but St. Francis never trailed down the stretch. Sutton had two kills and Glikman scored a kill and a block assist (with sophomore Alli MacDonald) to help finish a four-point set win.

Except for Dorn's kill to start, the Troubies led for almost the entirety of the fourth frame. MacDonald stayed in the match to provide three more kills, with one thanks to a back-row block violation. The sophomore middle also won a joust against Sprinkle for a solo stuff at 16-10. Glikman also had three kills and ended up with a block with Jensen to make it 22-16. Ripon appeared to have covered, but could not continue the play as senior Olivia Newman limped off the court. Dorn managed three more kills down the stretch as part of her match-high 30, including a successful tip after Dickerson had made a spectacular dig on a previous swing. Nonetheless, kills from Sutton, Hernandez and Palmeri clinched the match for the Troubadours.

Tuesday marked just the fifth meeting between St. Francis and Ripon in the MaxPreps era (2004-present), and the first time in a best-of-five match. Thursday's visit from Cardinal Newman will be just the second time the Troubies and Cardinals have met in the past 21 years, with St. Francis sweeping, 25-23, 25-8, at the 2021 Stockton Classic.

Newman qualified for the state tourney after finishing third in the North Coast Section Division II draw. The Cardinals defeated Berean Christian and American before falling in a 3-vs.-2 semifinal against Saint Mary's. The Cardinals then came back to claim a four-set win over Salesian in the third-place match.

This is St. Francis' first appearance in the NorCal and state tourneys since 2022. It also marks the first time the Troubies have advanced in the championship since 2018, while the No. 2 seed is the highest SF has owned since the 2013. Coincidentally, that 2013 Troubie squad also entered the NorCal tourney with a 32-8 mark, and ended up falling in the championship to Granite Bay, now a leaguemate in the Sierra Foothill League.

Thursday's St. Francis-Cardinal Newman match starts at 6 p.m. Tickets are available only through GoFan (https://gofan.co/app/school/CIF), with the direct link expected to go live on Wednesday.