Tuesday's match against Cardinal Stritch played out like several other matches this season for the Bees. There were stretches of strong play followed by bouts of inconsistency.

In the end, it led to a tight 25-20, 18-25, 25-23, 21-25, 15-12 loss in Lee Lohman Arena.

Prior to the match, St. Ambrose recognized three of its seniors playing at home for the final time - Jason Bageanis, Zack Denton and Skyler Marushige. 

Then the Bees twice battled back from a one-set deficit to nearly get the win.

After forcing a fifth set, a Stritch hitting error and a Richard Reed ace gave SAU a quick 2-0 lead. But after taking a 4-3 lead, the Bees watched the Wolves rip off six straight points. St. Ambrose battled back, using a 5-0 run of its own behind kills from Bageanis and Marushige and a block from Bageanis and Jake Snyder to pull even at 11-11.

But the Bees would get just one more point from there as the Wolves (9-12, 7-5 CCAC) ultimately closed out the five-set match.

St. Ambrose was up and down each set. The Bees totaled 27 kills and just two hitting errors in winning the second and fourth sets, but had 25 kills and 23 errors combined over the other three sets.

Bageanis shared match-high honors with 17 kills. Marushige added 15. Nick Fox collected seven kills, Snyder added six and Drew Hamlin had three.

Snyder led the Bees with 40 assists. Jesse Moreno was credited with 11 digs. Reed and Marushige each had six digs and Snyder and Colin Teresi had five apiece.

St. Ambrose finished conference play with a 4-9 record. The Bees, 9-17 overall, will close the season at Augustana Friday night.