[Men's Volleyball] St. Ambrose stumbles in home and CCAC opener

Less than 24 hours after overcoming a 2-0 deficit to post a 3-2 win at Quincy, St. Ambrose squandered a two-set lead of its own to CCAC foe Saint Xavier in the Bees' home opener Tuesday night in Lee Lohman Arena.

SAU was unable to capitalize on a pair of match points in the third set and fell to the Cougars 22-25, 17-25, 26-24, 25-20, 15-13 to fall to 2-3 on the year.

After winning the first two sets, the Bees held a 22-16 lead in the third on a Jaylen Clark block. Saint Xavier (1-1, 1-0 CCAC) won five straight points to get within 22-21. Austin Royer and Clark put down kills around a Cougar block to give St. Ambrose a chance to close out the match at 24-22. But SXU stayed alive with a four-point run to extend the match.

SAU fell behind early in the fourth and never fully recovered. Saint Xavier built leads of 11-6 and 17-8 to force a decisive fifth set.

There, the Bees again fell behind early. The Cougars clawed to a three-point lead as late as 9-6. Following an SXU serving error, Scott MacGillis had a kill and Clark and Royer teamed for a block to even the score at 9-9. A few points later, Clark came up with a solo block to give St. Ambrose an 11-10 lead. But that was short-lived as three consecutive Bee errors handed the Cougars a 13-11 lead. Despite a late kill from Riley Anderson, SXU was able to close out the win 15-13.

MacGillis led all players with 20 kills. Anderson added 12 and a team-high nine digs. Clark collected eight kills and Zach Schmidt finished with seven. Royer shared match-high honors with 36 assists. Jake Snyder registered 11. MacGillis and Adam Campbell each came up with eight digs.