St. Ambrose will play for the CCAC Tournament championship Saturday at 2 p.m. at Lee Lohman Arena.

The top-seeded Bees qualified for the title match after knocking off Robert Morris 25-23, 26-24, 25-20 in a semifinal Friday night. Saint Xavier outlasted Cardinal Stritch 9-25, 25-23, 25-22, 23-25, 15-13 in the earlier semifinal.

A win Saturday would give No. 10 SAU a conference tournament title to go alongside its regular-season crown and return the Bees to the NAIA National Tournament for the first time since the 2016 season.

St. Ambrose will have that opportunity after defeating Robert Morris, a team they went 1-1 against during the regular season.

The Bees did it by coming up with big plays down the stretch.

After trailing 14-11 midway through the opening set, SAU went on an 8-1 run, highlighted by kills from Zach Schmidt and Levi Vermeulen and aces from Jaylen Clark and Jake Snyder. The Eagles (14-16) caught the Bees at 23-23 but Snyder immediately gave SAU a 24-23 lead with his only kill of the set. On the next point, a RMU hitting error gave SAU a 1-0 lead.

St. Ambrose trailed 15-8 and faced a 21-18 deficit in the second. Consecutive kills from Schmidt sparked a five-point run for a 23-21 advantage. Robert Morris responded to tie the set at 23-23. After the Bees squandered their first set point at 24-23, a kill from Scott MacGillis gave the team another chance at 25-24, and that was followed by an Eagle error for a two-set lead.

A 7-2 run at the midpoint of the third set helped St. Ambrose complete the sweep. That spurt built an 18-13 lead and the Bees led by at least three points the rest of the way in improving to 15-9 on the year.

MacGillis led the way with 10 kills. Schmidt had six and Vermeulen added five. Adam Campbell was credited with 22 assists to go along with three aces and Danny Woulfe had a team-high 11 digs. Avery Clark picked up six digs.

Now the Bees will face a Saint Xavier team they have defeated twice already this season. The tournament champion will receive an automatic bid to the NAIA National Tournament in Des Moines, Iowa, April 16-20.