A gritty comeback in the fourth set ended up not mattering as St. Ambrose saw its season come to an end in a 3-2 home loss to Viterbo in the first round of the CCAC Tournament Tuesday night.

After blowing a large lead late in the fourth, the V-Hawks controlled much of the final set in their 25-17, 26-24, 17-25, 22-25, 15-8 victory.

The Bees actually finished with more kills (55 to 52) and a better hitting percentage (.184 to .161) but 17 serving errors and some untimely passing problems were too much to overcome.

After dropping the first two sets, St. Ambrose cruised in the third. Then SAU ran into problems in the fourth. Viterbo (6-29) jumped to a 20-16 lead and led 22-19 minutes later. But behind the SAU crowd, the Bees rallied.

Kills from Kam Dixon and Charlie Flynn cut the deficit to 22-21. A V-Hawk hitting error tied the score and forced a Viterbo timeout. That didn't slow St. Ambrose. Another VU hitting error gave SAU the lead, and the defense closed it out. Flynn teamed with Cael Anderson on a block for a 24-22 lead, and then Flynn and Dixon shared a block to force a fifth set.

The teams traded points early in the decisive set with a kill from Michael Bos putting the Bees down just 6-5. But from there, the V-Hawks gradually pulled away. Viterbo won the next two points to go up 8-5, and after a serving error cut the gap to 8-6, VU won the next five points to build a 13-6 lead. Four points later, the SAU season came to a close.

Dixon led the Bees with 15 kills. Three others reached double figures - Flynn (13), Bos (12) and Pedro Zang (10). Cael Anderson added three.

Anthony Anderson led all players with 45 assists while picking up 11 digs. Ethan Karban paced St. Ambrose with 14 digs. Dixon had seven, Zang collected six and Kainalu Ka'ahanui ended with five.

Flynn and Bos were each involved in seven blocks while Cael Anderson had three. Zang registered three aces and Karban ended with two.

St. Ambrose finished the year with a 14-16 record.