Down three regulars, including the starting setter, St. Ambrose was able to get a split of two matches on the first day of the William Penn Invitational Friday.

The Bees defeated Morningside 25-22, 20-25, 20-25, 30-28, 15-11 for their second five-set win over the Mustangs in just over a week before falling to Goshen, a team receiving votes in the NAIA national poll, 25-18, 25-17, 25-15.

"We had to make several lineup adjustments for Friday's matches," SAU head coach Ray Green said. "The team did a great job dealing with the changes while still competing at a high level. I'll take 1-1."

St. Ambrose was able to go 1-1 on the team thanks to rallying to defeat Morningside. The Bees' makeshift lineup was down 2-sets-to-1 and 24-19 in the fourth. But SAU erased all five match points with a 6-0 run, highlighted by two Mikolaj Zielonka kills, a Richard Reed kill and a Skyler Marushige ace. The Bees later erased another match point at 26-25. Finally, a block from Zielonka and Marushige gave SAU a 29-28 lead, and Zielonka followed with an ace to force a fifth set.

St. Ambrose carried momentum into the fifth by winning the first five points. Jeramie Gutierrez had a kill and teamed with Dan Rice for a block in the early spurt. The lead grew to 11-3. Morningside was able to get within 14-11 before SAU closed out the win.

Gutierrez and Jason Bageanis each had 13 kills in the victory. Reed finished with nine, Zielonka had six and Marushige added five. Marushige also had a team-high 39 assists.

Reed had eight digs, while Marushige, Jesse Moreno and Colin Teresi each picked up seven. The Bees finished with 16 total blocks. Zielonka was involved in 10 of them and Rice was in on eight.

St. Ambrose saw its four-match winning streak come to an end in the 3-0 loss to Goshen. The Bees had just 26 kills against 27 hitting errors.

Teresi led the team with nine kills. Bageanis and Gutierrez had six apiece. RIchard Reed was credited with 17 assists and eight digs, while Moreno had 13 digs and five assists. Gutierrez also recorded eight digs in the loss.

SAU, now 6-10 on the year, will conclude the two-day invitational with matches against Kansas Wesleyan and Central Christian Saturday.