[Women's Volleyball] SAU rallies to shock Saint Xavier in five

St. Ambrose fought off four match points in the fourth set and ultimately completed the comeback in a 21-25, 23-25, 26-24, 33-31, 15-10 win over Saint Xavier Saturday afternoon.

The Bees dropped the first two sets, and after building a 16-10 lead in the third on a Rachael Dion kill, watched the Cougars (4-3, 3-3 CCAC) tie things at 17-17. It seemed like the two teams traded points the rest of the way.

St. Ambrose, now 10-5 overall and 5-3 in the conference, claimed the third after back-to-back Saint Xavier hitting errors broke a 24-24 tie.

The Bees grabbed the largest lead of the fourth set at 21-18 on a Dion kill, but the Cougars came back with three straight points to knot the score at 21-21. The teams stayed within a point the rest of the set. SAU was unable to capitalize on its first four set points, while also turning away the four SXU match points. Finally, at 31-31, Jill Kavalauskas gave St. Ambrose its fifth set point, and this time the team was able to take advantage as Jessica Hemm had a big block to end the set and force a decisive fifth set.

After dropping the first point, the Bees controlled much of the fifth. A kill from Meredith Siebers and a Amber Tomlin ace helped SAU to a 3-1 lead. Kills from Kavalauskas and Dion sandwiched around a Siebers ace came part of a four-point run that opened up a 7-2 lead.

Saint Xavier closed to within 7-5 but consecutive Kavalauskas kills rebuilt a four-point lead. The Cougars made a final push to close the gap to 12-10. A kill and a block from Siebers gave the Bees some breathing room, and Tomlin and Payton Wendt combined for a block on match point to close out the team's third straight win.

Siebers led St. Ambrose with 17 kills while also adding 17 digs and three aces. Kavalauskas was right behind her with 16 kills and 10 digs, and Dion was credited with 11 kills.

Tomlin had a team-high 43 assists along with 19 digs.

Maicee Pierce led the Bees with 22 digs.

SAU will hit the road to visit Indiana Northwest Tuesday.