Going up against one of the conference favorites, St. Ambrose came up short in a 25-23, 25-22, 25-12 loss at Trinity Christian Tuesday night.

The Bees built sizable leads in both the first and second sets.

Two kills from Jill Kavalauskas and another from Meredith Siebers came as part of an 11-3 run early in the match that gave SAU a 15-7 lead in the opening set. Later in the set, the lead remained 20-15 following a Jessica Hemm kill. Consecutive kills from Hemm and Siebers had the margin at 22-19, but then the Bees stalled, winning just one of the next seven points as the Trolls claimed the set 25-23.

Kavalauskas and Amber Tomlin served St. Ambrose into an 11-4 lead early in the second. Tomlin had two quick aces during the fast start. Trinity Christian (8-5, 8-2 CCAC) rallied and ultimately caught SAU at 16-16. A Kavalauskas kill would give the Bees their final lead of the night at 17-16. The Trolls built a 24-19 lead. Kavalauskas had three straight kills to cut the gap to 24-22 before TCC closed out the set.

Trinity won the first three points of the third set and never looked back. The lead grew to 12-2 and St. Ambrose never recovered.

Siebers led SAU with 11 kills. Kavalauskas had nine and Hemm added four.

Tomlin shared match-high honors with 24 assists and also added a team-best 14 digs. Alexis Hayes (13), Megan Mitchell (12) and Siebers (11) all registered double-digit digs.

The Bees, now 12-6 overall and 7-4 in the conference, will host St. Francis (Ill.) next Thursday, Mar. 18.