Down 9-5 midway through the second half, St. Ambrose outscored Cornell 8-2 down the stretch to escape with a 13-11 win in Mount Vernon, Iowa, Thursday evening.

The Bee offense came alive, scoring four unanswered goals in a five-minute span to pull even at 9-9 with just over 11 minutes to play. The Rams snatched momentum back with a pair of goals to retake a 11-9 lead with under five minutes to go.

One minute later, Allie Ruggiero got one of those goals back, pulling SAU to within 11-10. Then it was Jamie Rieger's turn. Her goal on a free-position shot evened the score at 11-11 with 2:04 remaining. Then she broke the tie with her sixth goal of the game, coming with 1:31 on the clock. Jill Carlson added an unassisted goal in the final minute to seal the victory.

Rieger earned her hat trick in the first half, but after she opened the scoring 23 seconds into the contest, St. Ambrose played from behind most of the rest of the way.

Despite an early Dallas Baker goal, the deficit was 6-2. But two goals from Rieger and another from Carlson helped SAU end the half with a 3-1 run to pull to within 7-5 at the half.

Cornell (4-4) scored the first two goals of the second half to build its 9-5 lead. That's when the St. Ambrose rally started, and it began with a Rieger goal. Baker scored twice and Marie Cristoforo added another as part of the 4-0 spurt that erased the four-goal deficit.

The Bees outshot the Rams 20-11 in the second half to finish with a 37-28 edge for the game.

Elizabeth Zia earned the win, making 12 saves in goal for St. Ambrose.

SAU, now 7-3 overall, returns to KCAC play next Saturday with an 11 a.m. game at St. Mary (Kan.).