SAU fails to close out Judson
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Judson (IL) (11-10, 5-3) | 23 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 19 | 3 |
|
St. Ambrose (IA) (12-12, 5-3) | 25 | 25 | 18 | 15 | 17 | 2 |
Leading two sets to none. Up 14-12 in the fifth. Holding a total of four match points. St. Ambrose wasn't able to capitalize on any of it in a 23-25, 23-25, 25-18, 25-15, 19-17 loss to Judson Tuesday night at Lee Lohman Arena.
The Bees squandered the 2-0 lead and let the Eagles rally late in an important CCAC match.
The loss dropped SAU into a tie with Judson for second in the conference with matching 5-3 league marks. Olivet Nazarene is right behind at 4-3 in the conference.
Even after allowing Judson (11-10) to extend the match, St. Ambrose (12-12) appearned in control after back-to-back Michael Bos kills opened up a 12-9 lead in the decisive fifth set. The Eagles got two points back but another kill from Bos and a Judson serving error gave SAU a 14-12 lead.
The Eagles were able to win consecutive points to stay alive. Charlie Flynn gave the Bees two more chances to win the match, putting down kills to give SAU leads of 15-14 and 17-16. But they came up empty each time.
A Bee hitting error knotted the score at 17-17. That was followed by two straight Judson kills to end the match.
St. Ambrose finished with 60 total kills and hit at a .338 clip while Judson, aided by collecting 33 kills against just three hitting errors in the third and fourth sets, totaled 73 kills and hit .390.
Pedro Zang led SAU with 24 kills. Bos put down 14 and had just one error to hit .591.
Kam Dixon finished with eight kills. Flynn had seven. Kainalu Ka'ahanui added three kills while Cael Anderson and Anthony Anderson had two apiece.
Anthony Anderson had a team-best 49 assists. Ka'ahanui, Ethan Karban and Matt Cannon had two each.
Anthony Anderson and Karban picked up nine digs each. Dixon came up with six and Ka'ahanui finished with five. Zang and Zander Larson each posted three digs. Zang led the team with four total blocks.
St. Ambrose will play its final home match of the regular season Thursday against Calumet.