A young St. Ambrose team will officially begin its season at Viterbo Thursday night. It will be a busy early stretch for the Bees. SAU will play at Mount Mercy Friday before playing its home opener Saturday at 5 p.m. against that same Mount Mercy team.

There will be several new faces taking the court for St. Ambrose with freshmen making up half of the 20-player roster.

Gone to graduation are all three all-CCAC selections from a year ago - middle hitter Jason Bageanis, right-side Skyler Marushige and setter Jake Snyder.

But the Bees have talent returning.

Senior middle hitter Nick Fox is back after leading the team 74 total blocks a season ago. He also put down 118 kills, hitting at a .260 clip. Senior libero Jesse Moreno had a team-best 203 digs in 2022. Junior middle hitter/right-side Mikolaj Zielonka collected 72 kills, 49 digs and 38 total blocks in his first season at St. Ambrose last year. Also returning is Richard Reed. The sophomore outside hitter posted 67 kills and 112 digs during his freshman campaign.

SAU has several other experienced players back from last year's 10-win team, including seniors Jake Powers, Colin Teresi, Matt Pettke and Dan Rice.

They will be joined by a 10-player freshman class consisting of Anthony Anderson, Cael Anderson, Ethan Chausse, Dayton Davis, Charlie Flynn, Kendrett Green, Jon Guch, Zander Larson, Dillon Markley and Kyle Schelonka. Junior Calvin Hertel and sophomore Ryan Hudson are also new to the team this season.

The Bees will face another challenging schedule. After not losing a CCAC match on its way to regular-season and conference tournament championships, Saint Xavier is the league's preseason favorite. Calumet, Olivet Nazarene and Judson are also expected to compete for position at the top of the CCAC standings.

It all gets underway Thursday with the season and CCAC opener at Viterbo.