St. Ambrose took sole possession of first place in the CCAC with a 28-26, 25-20, 25-19 win over No. 10 Saint Xavier Tuesday night at Lee Lohman Arena.

The Bees improved to 8-6 overall and 6-1 in the conference to take a game-and-a-half lead on three teams - Saint Xavier, Trinity Christian and Robert Morris.

SAU collected 43 kills against just eight hitting errors to sweep the season series from SXU (10-4). The .398 hitting percentage was the team's best mark of the year.

Zach Schmidt led the attack with 12 kills and one hitting error in 20 chances. Scott MacGillis had 15 kills and three errors. Levi Vermeulen (6 kills, 2 errors), Jake Snyder (4-1), Adam Campbell (3-0) and Jaylen Clark (3-1) also contributed.

The victory came after St. Ambrose rallied from a late deficit in the opening set. The Cougars held leads of 22-21, 23-22, 24-23 and 25-24 but each time the Bees pulled even. A Schmidt kill erased a second Saint Xavier set point and tied the set at 25-25. After the teams traded points, MacGillis broke a 26-26 tie with consecutive kills to give SAU a 1-0 lead.

The Bees opened up leads midway through both the second and third sets and held on for their fifth straight conference victory.

Campbell finished with a team-high 34 assists, and Danny Woulfe (9) and Robby Hoffman (7) led the team in digs.

Just a week after extending them to five sets, St. Ambrose will get another shot at the top-ranked team in the country when the Bees host No. 1 Missouri Baptist Friday at 7 p.m.