Despite 22 kills from Skyler Marushige, St. Ambrose dropped its CCAC opener to Trinity Christian 3-2 Tuesday night in Lee Lohman Arena.

The Bees fell to 0-4 overall following the 25-13, 21-25, 31-29, 26-28, 15-8 setback.

After a sluggish start, SAU bounced back to claim the second set. The Bees appeared poised to grab the third set after leading 23-21 on an Avery Clark kill and later 24-22 on a kill from Jeramie Gutierrez.

Trinity Christian (1-1, 1-0 CCAC) fought off those two set points and three others. St. Ambrose erased a pair of TCC set points, the last one coming on a Jason Bageanis kill that knotted the score at 29-29. But back-to-back Troll kills closed out the set.

The fourth set also went back and forth. The Bees had a pair of set points before the Trolls earned a match point at 26-25. SAU took advantage of a serving error to even the set at 26-26. Harry Khaira followed with an ace before Marushige and Nick Fox forced a decisive fifth set with a block.

A Gutierrez and Bageanis block gave St. Ambrose an early 5-3 lead in the fifth, but that would be about it for the Bees. SAU trailed just 8-7 before TCC rolled off five straight points in getting the win.

Clark finished with 12 kills in the loss. Bageanis had seven and Fox added five. Khaira led the team with 42 assists. Ricardo Ubior was credited with 19 digs.

The Bees will host No. 4 Missouri Baptist Thursday at 4 p.m.