St. Ambrose opened what it hopes proves to be a long postseason run with a dominant 3-1 victory over Cardinal Stritch in a quarterfinal match of the CCAC Tournament Tuesday night at Lee Lohman Arena.
The victory gives the No. 2-seeded Bees a home match against Judson in a tournament semifinal Thursday night. Judson upset No. 3-seed Indiana South Bend in another quarterfinal Tuesday.
The fact SAU's 25-16, 25-12, 28-30, 25-12 win lasted four sets undersells the Bees' control throughout the match. Outside of taking the third set, Cardinal Stritch (15-16) won just 40 points combined over the other three sets.
The Wolves totaled 15 kills combined over the first, second and fourth sets. The Bees collected at least 14 kills in each of the four sets. St. Ambrose finished with 58 total kills and hit at a .278 clip. CSU hit just .071 for the match.
Four Bees finished with double-digit kills. Reigning CCAC Attacker of the Week Jill Kavalauskas led the way with 15 kills. Mackenzie Grafton put down 11 and Alexandria Horne and Meredith Siebers each recorded 10.
Meredith Umland narrowly missing double figures, adding eight. Emily Pobanz collected three kills in her one set of work.
Strong serving also helped carry the Bees. Grafton was credited with eight aces. Lexi Huntley and Hannah Sondag had two aces apiece.
Sondag and Macy Watkins evenly split 46 of the team's 55 assists. Maicee Pierce picked up six assists along with a team-high 11 digs. Grafton had nine digs, Kavalauskas had eight and Watkins finished with seven.
Now St. Ambrose will face Judson for the third time this year. The Bees defeated the Eagles twice during the regular season - 3-1 in Davenport on Sept. 27 and 3-0 in Elgin, Ill., on Oct. 25.
Top seed Saint Xavier will host Trinity International in the other semifinal Thursday. The championship match will be played Saturday.
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