The Bees sure didn't make it easy. Down two sets and a pair of match points, St. Ambrose rallied for a thrilling 22-25, 23-25, 27-25, 25-18, 15-10 win at Cardinal Stritch Tuesday night. The victory guarantees SAU a spot in the upcoming six-team CCAC Tournament.

The Bees were a point away from dropping their regular-season finale, down 24-22 in the third. But a kill from Jon Guch and a block from Dan Rice and Charlie Flynn brought St. Ambrose back. Rice erased a third CSU match point with a kill to knot the third set at 25-25. Rice and Flynn combined for another block before SAU took the set thanks to a Stritch hitting error.

The Bees never let go of that momentum. They rolled through the fourth set to force a decisive fifth set. There, tied at 3-3, a kill from Flynn and three straight Ethan Chausse aces put St. Ambrose in front 7-3. Cardinal Stritch (6-11, 3-9 CCAC) rallied to get within 7-6 before three straight CSU errors gave SAU a 10-6 lead. The Bees maintained at least a three-point cushion the rest of the way.

"The boys played as one unit through non-stop adversity," SAU head coach Ray Green said. "I was so impressed with our grit and level of play as the match went on. Needless to say, we are very excited to be back in the postseason. Let's gooo!!!!"

SAU, now 7-19 overall and 6-7 in the CCAC, clinched one of the six conference tournament bids by locking up second place in the division. The CCAC Tournament opens next Tuesday. Final seeding and first-round matchups will be determined after the other conference schools wrap up their season Thursday.

Nick Fox led the Bees against the Wolves with 16 total kills. He had just two hitting errors to finish with a .560 hitting percentage. Guch put down 13 kills. Rice had seven, Flynn six and Richard Reed four. Jake Powers recorded a pair of kills.

Anthony Anderson had a team-best 35 assists. Chausse had 10. Chausse (six) and Anderson (four) combined for 10 aces. Guch had two and Reed and Kendrett Green each added one as the Bees totaled 14.

Dillon Markley picked up 14 digs. Anderson, Green and Jesse Moreno collected four apiece.