St. Ambrose let a large lead slip away in the second set and never recovered in a 25-15, 27-25, 25-23 loss at Olivet Nazarene Thursday night.

After dropping the opening set, the Bees stormed back in the second. Two kills from Mackenzie Grafton gave SAU a quick 3-0 lead and the margin grew to as many as eight points several times, the last at 21-13. But Olivet Nazarene (6-6, 4-2 CCAC) battled back with six straight points to get within 21-19.

Meredith Umland ended the Tiger run with a kill and the Bees ultimately earned three set points by grabbing a 24-21 advantage. However, St. Ambrose would win just one more point in the set, that coming on a Grafton kill to knot the score at 25-25, as ONU won six of the final seven points for a two-set lead.

SAU put up a fight in the third despite leading just once at 1-0 on an Umland kill. The team remained with a single point for the majority of the set. But after a Grafton kill cut the deficit to 24-23, the Tigers earned the final point to close out the three-set win.

SAU finished just just two fewer kills than ONU (40-38) but committed eight more hitting errors (24-16).

Grafton paced the team with 14 kills. Umland had eight and Meredith Siebers added seven. Devyn Church and Kaleigh Bergschneider each put down three kills and Audrey Witte had two.

Hannah Sondag passed out 35 assists. Siebers and Skyler Kuntzman led the team with 13 digs apiece.

St. Ambrose (9-10, 3-3 CCAC) will return home to host Trinity Christian Saturday at 1 p.m.