An early-season road trip proved to be a perfect start for the Bees.

A day after opening the year with a 3-0 win at Hannibal-LaGrange, St. Ambrose moved to 3-0 with four-set wins over Graceland and the College of the Ozarks Saturday afternoon in Point Lookout, Mo.

Other than a third-set hiccup, SAU had little issue in defeating Graceland 25-20, 25-16, 23-25, 25-16 to start the day. The Bees finished with 46 kills against 17 hitting errors while the Yellowjackets had 28 kills and 26 errors.

St. Ambrose had a wake-up call early in the opening set as Graceland raced out to a 14-9 lead. But kills from Mackenzie Grafton and Alexandria Horne sparked SAU. Lexi Huntley followed with four straight aces before a Grafton-Horne blocked capped the eight-point run that put the Bees in front 17-14.

Moments later, a 5-0 run, featuring two kills from Jill Kavalauskas, opened up a 23-19 lead. SAU closed out the set three points later.

The Bees built a 15-8 lead in coasting through the second set. Then after failing to close out the match in three sets, St. Ambrose got kills from Kavalauskas and Emily Pobanz and an ace from Grafton in taking a 4-0 lead in the fourth. The margin grew to 10-2 and the Bees led by at least three points the rest of the way.

Kavalauskas led all players with 15 kills. Grafton put down 12. Horne collected seven kills, Pobanz had five and Meredith Umland ended with three.

Neenah Primas paced the team with 18 assists and Meredith Sondag finished with 16. Huntley was credited with nine aces and 12 digs. Grafton and Riley Epperson each had eight.

St. Ambrose turned around and beat host College of the Ozarks 25-20, 25-27, 25-23, 25-23.

After the teams split the first two sets, the Bees found themselves down 22-19 late in the third. But after an Ozarks error, kills from Grafton and Kavalauskas knotted the score at 22-22. With the set tied at 23-23, Kavalauskas finished things off with a kill and an ace to give St. Ambrose a 2-1 lead.

The fourth set was also decided late. Trailing 23-21, SAU got a kill from Grafton and a block from Pobanz and Umland to pull even. After a Kavalauskas kill, Grafton closed out a 4-0 run and the match with an ace.

Three Bees reached double-digit kills. Grafton had 18, Kavalauskas 17 and Horne 10. Pobanz and Umland each finished with four, and Sondag added two to go along with eight assists.

Primas recorded 37 assists and 11 digs. Maicee Pierce had a team-best 20 digs. Grafton and Huntley had 15 digs apiece and Epperson matched Primas with 11.

SAU returns to action next Friday and Saturday at the Park Invitational in Parkville, Mo.