St. Ambrose put up a good fight. But it just wasn't enough. The Bees saw their season come to an end in a 25-22, 25-18, 20-25, 25-19 loss at Judson in the first round of the CCAC Men's Volleyball Tournament Tuesday night.

The Bees end the year with a 7-20 record.

"The end of a season is never fun," SAU head coach Ray Green said. "But we played very well against a very good Judson team. I hate to see it end, but the future is bright."

SAU, seeded sixth in the conference tournament, went toe-to-toe with third-seeded Judson. The Bees finished with a higher hitting percentage (.248 to .213) than the Eagles, but couldn't come up with enough big plays at the end of each set.

St. Ambrose squandered a 19-12 lead in the opener. A Charlie Flynn kill had the Bees in front 21-18 before the Eagles went on its second 5-0 run of the set to take the lead. A Nick Fox kill got SAU to within 23-22 before Judson (20-6) closed out the set. The second set saw the teams tied as late as 15-15. From there the Eagles outscored the Bees 10-3 to take a two-set advantage.

With their backs against the wall, the Bees responded. St. Ambrose collected 10 kills against just three errors, hitting at a .350 clip, while Judson had nine kills and 10 errors in the third set. Two Fox kills and a kill and an ace from Anthony Anderson keyed a five-point run that turned a slim 10-9 lead into a 15-9 edge midway through the set. The Bees led comfortably from there to force a fourth set.

A fast 4-2 start wasn't enough in what proved to be the final set. A Jon Guch kill gave St. Ambrose its final lead at 6-5 before Judson won four points in a row to go in front. Flynn and Dan Rice combined on a kill to bring the teams even at 14-14 and a Fox kill cut the deficit to 18-17. The Eagles again closed strong, winning seven of the final nine points to advance to Friday's tournament semifinals at Saint Xavier.

Fox had a huge night in defeat, finishing with 17 kills while hitting .609. Guch put down eight kills. Flynn, Rice and Richard Reed each had four kills. Anthony Anderson, Cael Anderson and Colin Teresi had two kills apiece. Dillon Markley and Jake Powers finished with one kill each.

Anthony Anderson paced the team with 26 assists. Ethan Chausse handed out nine. Markley had a team-best 13 digs. Anthony Anderson had five digs and Powers and Jesse Moreno were credited with three digs each. Flynn was credited with eight total blocks, including seven solo blocks.