St. Ambrose put itself in a position to host matches for the first two rounds of next week's CCAC Tournament. The Bees clinched the No. 2 seed in the eight-team bracket by closing the regular season with a 25-23, 25-19, 25-20 home win over Olivet Nazarene Thursday night.

The victory gave SAU a 13-3 conference mark. St. Ambrose finished in a tie for second with Indiana South Bend, but the Bees defeated the Titans head-to-head in early September to earn the tiebreaker.

The Bees will host a quarterfinal match next Tuesday, and with a win, would host a semifinal Thursday. The championship match will be hosted by the highest remaining seed on Saturday, Nov. 12.

SAU had to rally from late deficits in each of the three sets to sweep the season series from Olivet Nazarene.

The biggest comeback came in the opener. The Tigers (8-19, 7-9) led 23-19 before Alexandria Horne won the next two points via a block and a kill for the Bees. Consecutive ONU miscues pulled the teams even at 23-23. Meredith Umland gave SAU a set point with a kill and Jill Kavalauskas followed with a big service ace to close out a 6-0 run and the set.

After trailing by as many as three points early, St. Ambrose faced a 17-15 deficit in the second. It was another six-point run that changed momentum. Kavalauskas had three kills, Mackenzie Grafton another, and Meredith Siebers and Payton Wendt combined for a block that pushed the Bees in front 21-17. The lead whittled down to 21-19 before kills from Kavalauskas and Siebers sparked a set-closing four-point spurt.

The third set was less dramatic. Olivet Nazarene led 17-16 and the score was knotted as late as 19-19. Two straight Kavalauskas kills gave St. Ambrose the lead for good. Nursing a 21-20 advantage, the Bees got a kill from Horne and a block from Horne and Umland as part of a 4-0 run that wrapped up the win.

Kavalauskas had another huge night, finishing with 18 kills and a .452 hitting percentage. Grafton collected 10 kills, Horne finished with six, and Siebers and Umland each added five.

Hannah Sondag (23) and Macy Watkins (18) combined for 41 assists on 45 SAU kills. Grafton and Maicee Pierce each picked up 14 digs. Kavalauskas had eight and Sondag seven.

The pairings for the CCAC Tournament will be released later in the week.