Behind 11 kills apiece from Mackenzie Grafton and Jill Kavalauskas, St. Ambrose rolled to an important 25-21, 25-16, 25-23 win at St. Francis (Ill.) Thursday night.

The victory moved the Bees to 17-7 overall and 9-2 in the conference. SAU maintained sole possession of second place in the CCAC, a half-game ahead of both Trinity International (9-3) and Indiana South Bend (9-3), and within a game-and-a-half of conference-leader Saint Xavier (11-1), who fell to IUSB Thursday.

The Bees upped their level of play in each of the three sets against the Fighting Saints.

In the opener, SAU had 11 kills and 10 hitting errors, but claimed the set thanks to a 7-0 run. Meredith Siebers had two kills during the run that turned a 16-13 deficit into a 20-16 advantage. The Bees maintained at least a three-point lead the rest of the way.

St. Ambrose won the first three points and nine of the first 13 points to ultimately run away with the second set. SAU collected 14 kills against just seven errors to hit .200 in the second.

The numbers were even better in the third. The Bees put down 12 kills and had just four errors to hit at a .250 clip. St. Ambrose still found itself down 17-16 late. But a kill and an ace from Kavalauskas led to a 7-1 run that pushed the Bees in front 23-18. USF (17-15, 8-4 CCAC) immediately responded with four straight points to get within 23-22, but Grafton had kills on two of the final three points to finish out the sweep.

Siebers recorded seven kills, while Meredith Umland had three, and Payton Wendt and Alexandria Horne each had two. 

Hannah Sondag had a match-best 26 assists. Macy Watkins collected five assists in her one set of action.

Grafton (14) and Maicee Pierce (11) each registered double-digit digs. Sondag picked up eight and Kavalauskas ended with seven.

Grafton and Lexi Huntley combined for five of the team's eight aces in the win.

The Bees will face a busy stretch of six matches over the next two weeks, starting with a CCAC match at Judson next Tuesday.