St. Ambrose remained winless in the early stages of CCAC play following a 3-2 loss at Judson Tuesday night.

The Bees had their opportunities before the 26-24, 18-25, 22-25, 25-18, 20-18 loss dropped them to 1-8 overall and 0-3 in the conference.

SAU's best chance perhaps came in the opening set. The Bees built an 18-12 lead before watching it all evaporate in a 7-0 Eagles' run. St. Ambrose battled back to grab a 22-20 lead on a Riley Hummert kill but Judson (6-8, 1-1 CCAC) answered with two straight points to tie the set at 22-22. After the teams traded points, the Eagles earned a first set point, which Hummert erased with a kill. But back-to-back Bee hitting errors allowed Judson to steal the opening set.

St. Ambrose played nearly flawless volleyball in dominating the second set, recording 13 kills against just two hitting errors. Hummert collected five of those kills while Abby Happ and London Williams each put down three.

Leading 16-13, a Jenna Laxton aced sparked SAU to win nine of the final 14 points to even the match at one set apiece.

With the back-and-forth third set tied at 16-16, the Bees went on a 4-0 run behind a Sydni Coultrip ace and a kill from Happ, to take a 20-16 lead, an advantage they would hold on to the rest of the set. After Judson closed to within 22-21, a Hummert kill was followed by a Judson error, and one point later, a Madisyn Johnson kill gave SAU a 2-1 lead.

One set away from snapping a six-match losing streak, the Bees instead watched the Eagles win the first four points of the fourth set. SAU was never able to get closer than two points the rest of the way as the match extended to the fifth set.

There, St. Ambrose was forced to battle back from 7-2 and 11-8 deficits. But two Judson errors were sandwiched around kills from Hummert and Williams to put the Bees in front 12-11.

The teams exchanged points with SAU fighing off match points at 14-13, 15-14 and 16-15. Johnson and Allie Brent combined for a block to give St. Ambrose its first match point at 17-16, which was quickly erased. After a Breanne Cunningham kill again drew the teams even at 18-18, Judson was able to close out the win with consecutive points.

Hummert led all players with 16 kills to go along with tying for team-high honors with 18 digs while Happ finished with 11 kills. Williams and Johnson totaled nine kills apiece.

Morgan Twing was credited with 35 assists and 14 digs. Coultrip registered 14 assists. Laxton matched Hummert by picking up 18 digs.

The Bees will next play two matches at a triangular hosted by Hannibal-LaGrange Saturday. The day opens with a match against No. 1 Park at 2 p.m. before SAU faces host Hannibal-LaGrange at 4 p.m.