Bees rally late to take down Eagles in five
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Judson (8-9, 5-5 CCAC) | 21 | 30 | 13 | 25 | 14 | 2 |
|
St. Ambrose (12-5, 7-3 CCAC) | 25 | 28 | 25 | 23 | 16 | 3 |
Behind the serving of Maicee Pierce, St. Ambrose fought off three match points in rallying late to defeat Judson 25-21, 28-30, 25-13, 23-25, 16-14 Thursday night at Lee Lohman Arena.
The Bees trailed 10-4 early in the fifth and found themselves a point away from seeing their four-match winning streak end at 14-11. Back-to-back Meredith Siebers kills cut the deficit to 14-13 and forced a Judson timeout. Rachael Dion then evened the score at 14-14 with a big block.
Siebers connected with Jessica Hemm for a kill to give the Bees a match point. And then another strong serve from Pierce led to a free ball that Hemm pounced on for her ninth kill of the night to send SAU to its fifth straight victory.
The comeback came after a hot-and-cold St. Ambrose team was unable to hold onto 1-0 and 2-1 leads.
SAU led 19-16 in the fourth before Judson scored four straight points. That started a 9-4 run that ultimately forced the decisive fifth set.
Siebers led all players with 23 kills. She was also credited with 17 digs. Jill Kavalauskas also recorded a double-double with 19 kills and 17 digs. Hemm picked up nine kills, Dion added seven and London Williams finished with three.
Amber Tomlin finished with a match-high 50 assists while also picking up 21 digs. She also registered three aces. Pierce paced the Bees with 23 digs.
St. Ambrose, now 12-5 overall and 7-3 in the CCAC, will visit Trinity Christian Tuesday.