In a battle of two of the top teams in the CCAC, St. Ambrose built a two-set lead but couldn't close it out in an eventual 20-25, 23-25, 25-17, 25-20, 15-11 loss to Saint Xavier at Lee Lohman Arena Tuesday night.

In front of a big crowd, the Bees controlled play throughout the first two sets. After leading early, SAU fell behind 23-22 late in the second. But a kill from Meredith Siebers drew the teams even. A Cougar hitting error followed by a Kelsey Koberg ace gave St. Ambrose its 2-0 lead.

But after winning the first three points of the third set, two coming on kills from Siebers, the Bees struggled to get much going consistently. Saint Xavier (7-6, 5-1 CCAC) cruised through the third and withstood a late SAU rally in the fourth to force a decisive fifth set.

An early kill from Mackenzie Grafton helped St. Ambrose build a fast 4-2 lead in the fifth. A Meredith Umland kill had the Bees in front 6-5, but that proved to be the final SAU lead. SXU won the next three points and maintained the lead from there. Down 13-9, the Bees tried to fight back with kills from Siebers and Devyn Church closing the gap to 13-11. SAU would get no closer as SXU won the next two points to close out their comeback win.

Grafton led the team with 17 kills and added 13 digs and three aces. Siebers put down 13 kills to go along with 11 digs. Umland narrowly missed double figures, totaling nine kills. Church had six kills and Hannah Sondag and Audrey Witte each collected three.

Sondag had a team-best 39 assists and also recorded 13 digs. Koberg paced the Bees with 24 digs. Witte registered nine. Umland was credited with four total blocks.

St. Ambrose, now 9-9 overall and 3-2 in conference play, will visit Olivet Nazarene Thursday.