On a night when the Bees recognized their seniors, St. Ambrose put together multiple rallies to outlast Hannibal-LaGrange 28-26, 26-24, 24-26, 25-23 Thursday in Lee Lohman Arena. In a match that saw each of the four sets decided by just two points, SAU came up big down the stretch.

The Bees fought off four set points to steal the opener. Down 24-20, St. Ambrose got a kill from Payton Wendt and then turned to Lexi Huntley. Huntley's strong serving stretch included a pair of aces to draw the teams even at 24-24. Unable to close out set their first two tries, the Bees finally got kills from Riley Epperson and Jill Kavalauskas to escape 28-26.

In the second, St. Ambrose had to recover from an 18-13 deficit. Emily Pobanz had three straight kills as part of a seven-point run behind Isabelle Todd's serve that put SAU in front 20-18. With the set knotted at 24-24, Alexandria Horne and Pobanz had back-to-back kills to give the Bees a two-set advantage.

A third comeback came up a little short to prevent a sweep. Hannah Sondag served SAU back from a 24-17 deficit in the third. She had two aces, Kavalauskas had a pair of kills and the Bees got blocks from Meredith Siebers and Wendt to pull even at 24-24. But Hannibal-LaGrange (8-21) had the answer, coming up with the final two points to extend the match.

The fourth set featured an eight-point St. Ambrose spurt that erased a 17-11 Trojan lead. A block from Horne, an ace from Mackenzie Grafton and a kill from Sondag put the Bees in front 19-17. Two late kills from Siebers gave SAU a 24-21 lead, and finally, after HLG erased two match points, Siebers put down another kill to end the two-hour match.

Siebers, who played just the final three sets, and Kavalauskas each collected 15 kills. Pobanz had 11, Horne and Epperson recorded seven apiece, and Wendt added six.

Sondag surpassed 1,000 career assists in the second set and finished the match with 39. Macy Watkins was credited with 16 assists. 

Todd led all players with 18 digs. Sondag picked up nine, Epperson had eight, Watkins added seven, and Siebers and Skyler Kuntzman each had five.

Twelve Bees were honored during Senior Night festivities before the match. That group included nine seniors - Kuntzman, Horne, Todd, Epperson, Pobanz, Wendt, Sondag, Jenna Lynde and Ellie VanLandschoot - and three graduate students - Kavalauskas, Maicee Pierce and Neenah Primas.

St. Ambrose, now 19-7 overall, will return to CCAC play to close out the regular season. The final stretch includes matches at Cardinal Stritch Saturday and at Calumet Monday, before the Bees end the regular season at home against conference-leading Saint Xavier Tuesday and Olivet Nazarene Thursday.