NorCal regional run ends at home in title match

Posted: Nov 18, 2025

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Junior outside hitters Hailey Sutton and Sophia Palmeri each finished with double-doubles for the second straight match while senior Mercy Collier contributed on nine of her team's 15 total blocks, but St. Francis suffered to a .073 hitting average in falling in four sets, 25-21, 25-20, 23-25, 25-21, in the NorCal Region Division II girls' volleyball tournament finale against Clovis West Tuesday night.

The second-seeded Troubadours end their season at 35-9, making their first NorCal finals appearance in 12 years. The Golden Eagles improve to 31-13 and advance to the state tournament for the first time in program history.

Sutton finished with 17 kills on 48 swings with 11 digs on defense. Palmeri had three kills down the stretch of the match to finish with 10 total, while scooping up 12 digs. Senior libero Malia Fat led four St. Francis players with double-digit digs of 18, four more than senior setter Katie Kramer.

Still, the Troubies committed 32 attacking errors against 43 kills to the .073 team clip. The also fell victim to nine CW service aces while managing just two of their own – one each by Sutton and Palmeri in the first half of the opening set. Golden Eagle senior Jaden Graham had back-to-back such aces to cap a 5-0 run that gave her team a 9-4 lead to start the match, but SF scraped back into contention, with Palmeri's kill equalizing at 13-13. The Troubies eventually took a 20-18 lead, then Sutton and Collier each turned back overpasses into the Golden Eagle court. However, Clovis West scored seven of the last eight points in the opener, with a rare triple block by Collier, Gilly Glikman and Sidney Palmeri interrupting the string of points.

Golden Eagle freshman Brooklyn Lopez had two kills and an ace in a 9-3 start to the second, then Graham later chipped in a pair of kills to help increase that edge to nine at 19-10. The Troubies managed to close that gap to as little as three points when Collier and Sophia Palmeri combined on a block at 22-19. Collier later scored a kill to keep SF within striking range at 23-20, only for Graham to pound back-to-back kills from the right pin to complete the set win and forge a 2-0 match lead.

The two teams battled to 13 ties in the third, with St. Francis taking as much as a 15-12 lead when Clovis West hit three straight attack errors: one long, one wide and one into a Collier solo stuff. Another Golden Eagle freshman, Maliah Williams, notched a pair of block assists to get her team back to a 16-16 tie, but Clovis West did not regain the lead until Graham scored on a tip and a block to flip the score to 21-20 in her favor.

St. Francis called a timeout, then regained a 22-21 lead on two attacking errors. Layla Hernandez and Marissa Jensen teamed up for a block for the Troubies' 23rd point, then Sophia Palmeri finished with two kills in the final stretch in completing the set win.

Sutton helped maintain the momentum into the fourth, leading off with a block near left antenna when later scoring a kill for a 3-1 start. Then Lopez and Williams each scored kills while teaming up for a block as part of a 5-0 run to craft a 6-3 lead for Clovis West. The Golden Eagles stayed on top for the remainder of the match, boosting the margin to as much as seven on a Graham tool to make it 19-12. Senior Eve Dixon served up an ace to establish 24-16 match point. St. Francis held off for five straight points, with Sutton scoring three kills along the way, but the Golden Eagles watched a Troubie shot sail just wide for the winner.

Sutton's 17 kills raised her season total to 401, becoming the sixth player in school history to reach the 400-kill plateau. Alexa Edwards achieved that feat four times, with Gabi Palmeri and Zoe Nightingale each doing so twice. All five previous Troubies went on to play NCAA Division I volleyball: Edwards at Pacific, Palmeri at Pepperdine, Nightingale at both UCLA and USC, Kathryn Kramer at TCU, and Kylie Green at UC Irvine.