St. Ambrose got off to a strong start against No. 12 Saint Xavier but ultimately fell short in a 25-19, 25-13, 25-14 loss Monday night at Lee Lohman Arena.

The Bees won the first four points of the match, thanks to back-to-back solo blocks from Nick Fox, and six of the first seven points against the nationally-ranked Cougars. Saint Xavier (8-2, 4-0 CCAC) recovered to tie the set at 11-11. The two teams stayed close with the set tied as late as 17-17. That's when the Cougars went on a four-point run that helped them close out the opening set.

St. Ambrose (4-10, 3-3 CCAC) finished with seven kills against just two hitting errors for a .312 hitting percentage, and nearly matched those numbers with eight kills, two errors and a .300 mark in the second set.

But SXU was even better, totalling 18 kills in the first set and 13, against just one error, in the second.

"We played really well in the first set and kept the offense hitting over .300 through the second set," SAU head coach Ray Green said. "Unfortunately, we couldn't keep the accelerator down, but it's two in a row as far as being able to play at a high level versus top level teams."

The Bees slipped to a .061 hitting percentage in the final set while the Cougars hit better than .400 for the third straight time to complete the sweep.

Jon Guch and Colin Teresi led St. Ambrose with five kills apiece. Fox put down four, and Charlie Flynn and Mikolaj Zielonka each collected three. Cael Anderson and Anthony Anderson had the other two Bee kills.

Ethan Chausse was credited with a team-best 11 assists. Anthony Anderson had seven.

Dillon Markley led the team with five digs. Both Andersons each had three. Fox finished with four solo blocks in defeat.

St. Ambrose will step out of conference play to host Augustana Wednesday night.