Volleyball Defeats El Camino in 4 Sets

News

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The St. Francis volleyball team closed out El Camino in four sets in the final league tune-up Thursday night. The Troubadours won 25-22, 25-15, 30-32 and 25-16 to post their second consecutive win of the week and improve to 7-4 overall.

“It was our game and we knew we needed to pick it up,” said freshman Alexa Edwards, who was named the Player of the Game by the Access Sacramento broadcast crew. “We really focused on the little things like our passing and hitting. That is what led us to the win.”

Edwards finished with a game-high 25 kills for St. Francis, hitting over 38 percent and added seven digs. Senior Emily Davis recorded 27 digs and junior Maddie Schildmeyer led the offensive attack with 43 assists.

St. Francis opened a 2-0 lead in the match by taking the first two sets, but the Eagles fought hard to prevent the Troubadours from leaving with the sweep by winning a 62-point third set 32-30. Both teams had several game points before El Camino forced the fourth game.

“We lost our sense of how we need to play in the third set,” said Edwards.

Junior Maggie Malaney added a spark off the bench, recording 15 points off her serve, including a team-best three aces, that helped a comeback in the third set and added to a fourth set lead.

St. Francis closed out the match with a 25-16 win in the fourth.

Senior Claire Schutz added double-digit kills and junior Aiyu Aimufua contributed eight kills.

The match was broadcast by Access Sacramento for the Home Town Sports Game-of-the-Week. The taped telecast may be seen on Friday, Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. on Comcast Cable Channel 17, Consolidated Communications Channel 17 and At&T U-Verse Channel 14. The match will be replayed Saturday, Sept. 10 at 11 a.m. and Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.

“We have really improved since our loss in Holy Court and tonight we really improved,” said Edwards. “We are going to keep getting better as the season goes on.”

St. Francis hosts Grant in the Delta League opener on Monday starting with the freshman contest at 4 p.m.

St. Francis 3, El Camino 1 1 2 3 4
St. Francis 25 25 30 25
El Camino 22 15 32 16