After controlling play for the first two sets, St. Ambrose was unable to keep it going. That resulted in a 19-25, 12-25, 25-16, 25-20, 15-11 loss to Viterbo in the Bees' home and conference opener Thursday night.

SAU (0-2, 0-1 CCAC) was dominant in the opening two sets. The Bees had 11 kills and just four hitting errors in the first set and followed that with 15 kills against two errors in the second.

Then things fell apart. And Viterbo jumped at the opportunity.

The V-Hawks (3-0, 1-0 CCAC) won the first seven points of the third set and never looked back. The Bees were only able to get as close as three points, the last time coming at 19-16 after a Jeramie Gutierrez kill. But that would prove to be SAU's final point of the set as VU ripped off six straight to extend the match.

The fourth set followed a similar script as the V-Hawks claimed five of the first six points to take control early. The Bees made a run late in the set. A kill from Drew Hamlin and a block from Gutierrez and Jason Bageanis came part of a 3-0 run that closed the gap to 20-17. But after the teams traded points, Viterbo earned some breathing room with back-to-back points for a 23-18 lead and forced a decisive fifth set a few points later.

The fifth set went back and forth early. A Bageanis kill and a Viterbo hitting error knotted the score at 6-6, and St. Ambrose stayed within a point as late as 12-11 following another Bageanis kill. That would be it for the Bees. The V-Hawks won the final three points to cap the comeback.

After the great start, SAU collected just a combined 18 kills over the final three sets. Over that same time, the Bees had 20 hitting errors.

Bageanis led St. Ambrose with 13 kills. He had just two attack errors. Gutierrez recorded 12 kills. Colin Teresi had seven, Nick Fox finished with five and Hamlin added four.

Jason Snyder had a team-high 33 assists and added eight digs. Jesse Moreno picked up 13 digs while Gutierrez matched Snyder with eight.