St. Ambrose fell short in their quest to take down conference leader and ninth ranked Saint Xavier on Tuesday night, falling 25-12, 25-16, 23-25, 25-20.

After a kill from Jason Bageanis, SAU pulled within two points in the first set at 9-7, but SXU rattled off the next seven points to put the set out of reach. The second set saw another big run from the Cougars until a Skyler Marushige kill followed by a Nick Fox block stopped the 6-0 run.

The third set was a back and forth affair. Trailing by three early in the set, a kill from Jaylen Clark and one from Marushige helped St. Ambrose tie up the set at 7-7. Three straight attacking errors from Saint Xavier gave SAU a 10-7 lead. After another kill from Marushige, SXU battled to tie it up at 12 each. The teams traded kills until a Clark and Bageanis block gave the Bees a one-point advantage at 14-13. SAU pushed the lead to two, but SXU went on another run to take over at 18-16. The Bees responded with a Marushige kill followed by two attacking errors from the Cougars for a one-point advantage. Bagenais and Harry Khaira combined for a block to give SAU set point. After a SXU kill, Marushige finished off the set with one of his own.

St. Ambrose looked determined to take the game into five sets as the fourth was another close one. A kill from Clark tied the set at 14-14 and after three straight points from the Cougars, an SXU attacking error and a block from Marushige and Fox, the Bees were only down by one. But SAU wouldn't get any closer in the final set of the match.

Marushige finished with a team-high 13 kills and added nine digs in the loss. Khaira had 26 assists and Ricardo Ubior finished with 11 digs. Fox ended up with five blocks while Bageanis had four.

The Bees will host William Penn on Thursday at 7 p.m.