St. Ambrose held leads late in each of the third, fourth and fifth sets, but could not close any of them out in a 24-26, 21-25, 25-23, 25-23, 19-17 loss to St. Francis Tuesday night in Lee Lohman Arena.

The Bees' biggest opportunity to close out the match came in the fourth set after a Larkin Calay ace capped a four-point run that opened a 22-20 lead. But SAU would win just one more point the rest of the set as St. Francis (9-9, 6-2 CCAC) rallied to force a decisive set.

In the fifth, St. Ambrose (8-12, 3-5 CCAC) built a two-point lead at 10-8 following two kills from Grace Beitzel and another from Emily Hickerson. The Bees maintained that two-point advantage and earned a pair of match points at 14-12 after a block from Olivia Johnson and Marta Barriguinha. USF responded with three straight points and the Bees would never lead again. Finally, on their fourth match point, the Saints closed out their five-set comeback victory.

The loss came after the Bees made a huge rally to claim the opening set.

St. Francis ran off 11 consecutive points midway through the first to build an 18-10 lead. Four kills from Beitzel and a solo block from Johnson came part of a 7-1 run that closed the gap to 20-17. Later, a three-point spurt, highlighted by two Barriguinha kills and one from Sofia Pabon, knotted the set at 23-23. Down a set point at 24-23, St. Ambrose turned to Barriguinha again, and her three straight kills gave the Bees a 1-0 lead.

SAU appeared poised for a quick evening after winning five of the final six points to claim the second set. But despite taking leads of 18-15, 19-17 and 21-20 in the third, the Bees were unable to close out the Saints, who ultimately rallied for the win.

After putting down 29 kills against just six hitting errors over the first two sets, St. Ambrose totaled 30 kills and 22 errors over the final three sets.

Beitzel and Barriguinha led the Bees with 21 and 15 kills, respectively. Pabon and Alexa Orozco each had six kills and Hickerson added four. Ella Karmenzind put down a pair of kills.

Ines Marques led all players with 52 assists. She also picked up 12 digs. Orozco had a team-best 19digs. Kennedy DeBaillie recorded 16 digs and Calay finished with 14. Jamie Neumiller and Olivia Hoskins each came up with six digs. Johnson was credited with five total blocks.

DeBaillie (four), Calay (three), Hoskins and Marques each had multiple service aces in the loss.

The schedule doesn't get any easier for SAU as the team will visit No. 15 Viterbo next Tuesday.