St. Ambrose climbed above .500 in conference play and strengthened its hold on a CCAC Tournament berth by picking up a 25-19, 25-16, 27-25 win at Trinity International Tuesday night. The victory moved the Bees to 16-11 overall and 8-7 in league play.

It was a big night from Jill Kavalauskas. She recorded 19 kills against just two hitting errors, finishing with a .459 hitting percentage. 

SAU pulled away in each of the three sets to earn the road win.

With the first set knotted at 17-17, kills from Meredith Umland and Mackenzie Grafton started a four-point run. A block from Meredith Siebers capped the spurt to give the Bees a 21-17 lead. After a Trojan point, Grafton and Kavalauskas had back-to-back kills for a 23-18 lead. Another kill from Kavalauskas and a TIU hitting error closed out the set.

St. Ambrose made its move a little earlier in the second. Leading just 10-9, the Bees got two kills apiece from Umland and Kavalauskas for a 14-9 lead. A point later, Grafton and Umland had kills as part of a 3-0 run that built a 17-10 lead. SAU cruised from there.

The Bees got a little complacent in the third. After building a 20-14 lead, they watched the Trojans storm back to even the score at 22-22. Trinity International (14-13, 9-5) had a chance to extend the match with a set point at 24-23, but St. Ambrose went back to Kavalauskas and she delivered. Consecutive kills put the Bees back in front, and at 25-25, two straight TIU hitting errors handed the match to SAU.

Kavalauskas wasn't the only Bee with a big night as the team attacked at a .318 clip. 

Umland had eight kills and a single hitting error while Siebers finished with eight kills and three errors. Grafton totaled six kills and Rachael Dion and Amber Tomlin each had four.

Tomlin led all players with 33 assists while picking up 11 digs. Maicee Pierce had a match-high 19 digs. Siebers was credited with 10.

With just three regular-season matches remaining before the conference tournament, St. Ambrose will play its final home match Thursday against Trinity Christian.