St. Ambrose took over sole possession of second place in the CCAC following a 32-30, 25-17, 25-22 win at Olivet Nazarene Tuesday night. The victory improved the Bees to 16-7 overall and 8-2 in the conference. Only Saint Xavier, at 11-0, is in front of SAU in league play.

The Bees had to earn Tuesday's win over the Tigers. St. Ambrose needed six set points before ultimately taking the opener.

An ace from Mackenzie Grafton and a block from Meredith Umland and Jill Kavalauskas helped SAU break away for a 24-22 lead late. But ONU (6-16, 5-6 CCAC) erased those two and three other set points. 

The Tigers themselves had three set points. Alexandria Horne and Hannah Sondag put down kills to erase the first two. Then down 30-29, Grafton had another kill to knot the score at 30-30. Umland and Kavalauskas followed with another big block to give the Bees a final chance. And this time they converted as a Meredith Siebers kill closed out the set.

The second set was close early, with SAU nursing just a 16-15 lead. But two ONU errors, a kill from Siebers and a kill and a block from Umland quickly pushed the advantage to 21-15. Holding a 21-17 lead, the Bees got two more kills from Siebers and an ace from Lexi Huntley to close out a four-point run and the set.

St. Ambrose led throughout the third. A 7-0 run, featuring kills from Umland, Siebers, Grafton and Kavalauskas, midway through the set seemingly broke things open. Grafton added an ace during the spurt that put the Bees in front 18-11. But Olivet Nazarene battled back late with a six-point charge to claim a 22-21 lead. But SAU bounced back, winning the final four points to sweep the match.

Grafton led all players with 10 kills. She added 10 digs in the win. Siebers was credited with nine kills. Kavalauskas and Umland each had six and Horne added five.

Sondag had match highes of 28 assists and six aces. She also picked up seven digs.

Maicee Pierce led the team with 17 digs. Umland registered nine total blocks.

The Bees return right to action Thursday night with a conference contest at St. Francis (Ill.). The Saints are one of two teams right behind the Bees with an 8-3 CCAC record.