SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Oak Ridge pulled out a 3-2 win over St. Francis Monday night in the Sac-Joaquin Section Foundation game in the season opener for both schools. Oak Ridge held on to claim the fifth set 15-11 after posting a 2-0 lead in the match.

“It was a great opener for us,” said Head Coach Alynn Wright. “The kids showed a lot of heart and desire. They played for each other. We had some adversity in the match and it would have been easy for them to fold because of their youth. I thought they rose to the occasion.”

Oak Ridge trailed 24-21 in the first set but fought off two set points to claim the first set. They easily posted a 25-17 win in the second set.

St. Francis rallied to take the third (25-22) and fourth (25-21) sets to force a fifth set. Oak Ridge rallied to take the final set 15-11.

“They fought one of the best teams in the city pretty well,” said Wright. “I was really pleased.”

Junior Claire Schutz led the team with 16 kills while hitting .256, recording eight straight kills without an error during one stretch.

“She started to figure some things out and we played aggressive,” said Wright. “When we played aggressive, we were the better team. We have a lot of work to do.”

Freshmen Katherine Kramer and J.J. Smith combined for 18 kills in their first action.

“It was nice to see J.J. and Katherine play so well in their first match,” said Wright.

Bailey Avery had 17 digs, while Kelsey Grover recorded 45 assists with 13 digs.

St. Francis travels to Christian Brothers for their annual Holy Court matchup against the Falcons on Thursday.

“We have to two days to refine some things and that one is always easy to get fired up for,” said Wright.

Access Sacramento will broadcast the match on a tape-delayed basis on Tuesday, Sept. 8.