St. Ambrose dropped a CCAC matchup to St. Francis (Ill.) 25-23, 25-18, 25-19 Thursday night in Lee Lohman Arena.

The Bees were forced to play catch-up from the start, but the team's best chance came in the opening set.

St. Francis (11-8, 8-5 CCAC) held a slim lead throughout the early stages of the set. St. Ambrose stayed close and ultimately pulled even at 22-22 on a block from Payton Wendt and Meredith Siebers. But after the teams traded serving errors, the Saints got a kill and then took advantage of a Bee hitting error to take a 1-0 lead.

SAU never really found its footing in the second. USF won five of the first six points on the way to a 10-3 lead. St. Ambrose used kills from Siebers, Amber Tomlin and Jessica Hemm to get within 12-10. But the Saints immediately answered with four straight points to reopen a six-point lead. The Bees got no closer than four points the rest of the set.

St. Ambrose grabbed a fast 5-3 lead on a Hemm ace early in the third. Megan Mitchell had kill to tie the set at 7-7, and the teams remained tied as late as 16-16 on a Jill Kavalauskas kill. As they did all match, the Saints had a response, winning seven of the next eight points for a 23-17 lead, and they closed out the match a few points later.

Kavalauskas led St. Ambrose with 11 kills. She was also credited with 10 digs.

Siebers finished with seven kills and 16 digs. Rachael Dion also had seven kills.

Tomlin led the team with 23 assists while also picking up 11 digs. Maicee Pierce recorded 11 digs, Mitchell finished with eight and Lexi Huntley added five.

The Bees, now 12-7 overall and 7-5 in the conference, will host Lincoln College next Tuesday.