St. Ambrose women's volleyball traveled to Dubuque, Iowa to face Clarke Wednesday night at the Kehl Center. The two teams faced off earlier in the season, with SAU winning 3-0 at the William Penn Tournament. Wednesday's night match was much closer as the Bees edged the Pride 25-16, 19-25, 20-25, 25-16, 15-12 for the five-set victory.

With the first set tied at 14-all, a Clarke attack error and a kill from Audrey Witte gave SAU a 16-14 lead and forced a Pride timeout. The Bees went on a 5-0 run to force another Clarke timeout with the lead at 21-14. The teams traded points until a kill from Meredith Umland, a service ace from Umland, and a kill by Witte gave St. Ambrose the first set.

In the second, with the teams tied at 19, Clarke went on a 6-0 run to close out the set for a 25-19 score. The Bees couldn't claim the third set but responded by winning the fourth to head to the deciding fifth set.

SAU got out to a 5-2 lead in the fifth off of blocks from Umland and Adriana Diaz, and from Umland and Witte. The Pride battled back to make it 6-all but a kill from Mackenzie Grafton between kills from Umland gave St. Ambrose a 9-6 lead. The home squad would fight again to put the score at 10-all, but four straight kills from the Bees pushed the lead to 14-10. After two Clarke points, Grafton won the set and match on a kill from Hannah Sondag.

Grafton and Umland finished with 16 kills apiece. Witte and Alex Horne added nine. Grafton had a team-high 15 digs, followed by Kelsey Koberg with 12, and Sondag with 11. Sondag finished with a season-high 51 assists in the win.

St. Ambrose will be back in CCAC play on September 19 when they travel to University Park, Ill. to take on Governors State at 7 p.m.