SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Sisters Sophia and Sidney Palmeri combined for 16 kills against just two errors for a .311 average while junior opposite Layla Hernandez hit 8-2-17 and a .353 clip, as St. Francis swept Davis, 25-16, 25-16, 25-19, in the varsity finale of a Sierra Foothill League girls' volleyball tripleheader Monday night.

The Troubadours, coming off a 6-0 performance to win Saturday's Carmichael Invitational, win their seventh straight to improve to 22-4 overall and 3-4 in SFL play. The Blue Devils move to 13-11 for the season with a 2-4 mark in league matches.

Sophia Palmeri led the SF attack with 10 kills while also delivering the match-ending solo block. Sidney Palmeri came off the bench to provide another six kills, with four of them coming in the first six Troubie points of the third set. Hernandez had three of her kills in a 10-3 finish to the third set.

Senior libero Malia Fat paced the defense with 18 digs, two ahead of junior Hailey Sutton in that department. Junior setter Brynley Magley served up four aces, all in a 10-0 run to break open the second set.

St. Francis trailed at some point in all three frames before enjoying key runs to take the lead for good. In the first, Davis took a 9-7 lead on Isabella Garma-Murphy's second tool of the match. A Troubie attacking error later gave the Blue Devils an 11-10 lead, but Sophia Palmeri took over with five kills in an 8-0 comeback run. Hernandez put down a five ball to make it nine straight and a 19-11 edge, then Mercy Collier's tip fell in for the 10th unanswered and a 20-11 margin. Davis made a brief comeback, with senior setter Juliana van Boxtel scoring on a tip and teaming with Mia Salvemini for a block against Sutton. But the SF junior avenged that stuff with back-to-back kills for the 24th and 25th points.

In the second set, the Troubie explosion arrived earlier, with Magley's heroics from the service line propelling St. Francis from what had been a brief 3-2 deficit to a 14-4 lead. The Troubadours continued to hold a 10-point edge after Garma-Murphy's roll shot fell short of the tape to make it 18-8. Then Salvemini served up three aces in a Blue Devil comeback to an 18-14 margin, prompting an SF timeout. Still, the Troubies scored seven of the last nine points of the second, with a Hiedi Vu ace and two of Gilly Glikman's six total kills coming through to extend the match lead to 2-0.

The two Palmeri sisters got to start the third side-by-side, with the younger sibling scoring three kills to craft a 4-1 start for the Troubies. Davis eventually rallied back to a 6-6 tie, and the two teams traded points through an 11-11 impasse. Juniors Emily Spence and Mikayla Meyer turned back errant pass receptions to boost the Blue Devils to a 13-11 lead, while Garma-Murphy had a free ball fall in for a kill to keep DSHS up by two at 16-14.

A service error gave St. Francis an unforced side out and a 16-15 deficit, then the next point brought some controversy. Hernandez scored the equalizer on a step-out shot on the right side of the 10-foot line, but a question arose as to whether or not Sophia Palmeri's earlier hit clipped the left antenna. The officials conferred briefly but could not overrule the play, leaving the score tied at 16-16. That finish to a ragged, scrambling rally began a strong overall finish for Hernandez, who ultimately led the Troubies to a 10-3 close to the match. She teamed with Collier on two blocks while delivering three more kills. A Davis shot sailed past the baseline for a 24-19 match point, then Sophia Palmeri came up with the solo stuff for the 25th.

As a team, St. Francis hit .297 on 40 kills versus 10 errors. Sutton chipped in another five kills with Collier adding three overall. Even the setter Vu and defensive specialist Chloe Johnson each recorded a kill in the only way permitted: Vu on a dump as part of the 10-0 run in the first, Johnson from the back row during the see-saw battle in the third.

The varsity win was the third of three straight-set wins for the Troubadours. The frosh fought back from a 19-15 deficit in the first and a 15-13 hole in the second to claim a 25-23, 25-20 win to start the evening. The SF junior varsity never trailed in its 25-7, 25-7 trouncing. In fact, the Troubies enjoyed a 26-2 combined run between the 16-2 finish to the first set and the 10 straight behind Quinn Castro's serving to kick off the second.

St. Francis heads to Rocklin for continued SFL action on Wednesday. JV and frosh play concurrently at 5:30 p.m., with varsity following the JV match in the Thunder's auxiliary court.