After letting a two-set lead evaporate, St. Ambrose recovered to defeat Clarke 25-23, 25-20, 19-25, 23-25, 15-10 in the final match of a tri-match in Dubuque, Iowa, Saturday.

It earned a hard-fought split for the Bees, who fell to No. 14 Morningside 25-23, 25-15, 30-32, 22-25, 15-9 earlier in the day.

SAU appeared ready to sweep the host Pride after winning the first two sets. But Clarke (4-9) rebounded to win the third and fourth sets.

With the fifth tied at 5-5, the Bees finally took control. Kills from Michael Bos and Kam Dixon, and Carter Zelnis was part of two blocks, one with Jon Guch, the other with Kainalu Ka'ahanui, as part of a five-point run that opened up a 10-5 lead.

It was an advantage SAU held on to. Guch and Zelnis each had a kill down the stretch as St. Ambrose picked up the five-set victory.

In the final set, the Bees had eight kills against four hitting errors while the Pride had just three kills and four errors.

Three different Bees put down double-digit kills, led by 13 from Bos. Ka'ahanui had 12 and Guch finished with 11. Zelnis and Zander Larson recorded four kills apiece and Dixon added three.

Felipe Prieto led the team with 25 assists and four aces. Matt Cannon had 15 assists. Ethan Karban picked up 18 digs while Prieto and Larson came up with nine each. Bos was in on seven blocks and Zelnis registered six.

SAU nearly swept the two matches but a rally against nationally-ranked Morningside came up short.

It followed a similar script to the Clarke match, except it was the Bees who were forced to comeback after dropping the first two sets.

The long third set saw Morningside have three match points, but it was ultimately St. Ambrose (11-6) who extended the match on the Bees' fourth set point of the third. A kill from Charlie Flynn broke a 30-30 tie and a Mustang hitting error sent the match to the fourth.

But after forcing a fifth set, and taking a 5-4 lead on a Bos kill, the Bee rally stalled.

Morningside (17-4) went on a four-point run to grab an 8-5 lead. And after another Bos kill, the Pride won three consecutive points to push the advantage to 11-6. Late kills from Flynn and Pedro Zang weren't enough for the Bees.

In a balanced attack, Zang recorded 18 kills, Dixon had 15, Flynn 13 and Bos 12. Ka'ahanui was credited with four kills.

Anthony Anderson handed out 37 assists and Cannon finished with 17. Karban collected 12 digs while Zang and Dixon had six apiece. Zang and Bos were each given seven blocks.

SAU will return home to battle CCAC foe Judson Tuesday.