[Men's Volleyball] SAU advances to CCAC Tournament championship match
Jaylen Clark had 25 kills and St. Ambrose recovered from squandering a two-set lead in a 25-23, 25-16, 23-25, 22-25, 16-14 win over Trinity Christian in the semifinals of the CCAC Tournament Monday.
The Bees will advance to Tuesday's championship match against the winner of Monday's other semifinal between Cardinal Stritch and host school Saint Xavier.
Clark helped carry SAU down the stretch, collecting six of his 25 kills in the fifth set after Trinity Christian (15-5) rallied to win both the third and fourth sets.
Neither team led by more than two points in the decisive set. The Trolls grabbed their last lead at 13-12 but that was erased by back-to-back TCC hitting errors that gave SAU a match point. The Bees were unable to capitalize but a Jason Bageanis kill gave the team another chance at 15-14. This time St. Ambrose was able to take advantage as another Troll hitting error sent the Bees to the championship match.
Behind Clark, St. Ambrose had nine kills and just one attack error in the final set.
Clark had just seven hitting errors total in SAU's first victory in three tries against TCC this season. Skyler Marushige put down 15 kills. Bageanis finished with six, Jake Snyder had four and Drew Hamlin totaled three.
Snyder led all players with 48 assists, eight of those coming in the fifth.
Avery Clark picked up 12 digs and a pair of aces, while Harry Khaira added eight digs.
The Bees also finished with 12 team blocks, with Nick Fox involved in six and Bageanis in five.
The win also moved St. Ambrose to 14-13 overall, marking the first time the team has been over .500 this year.
Tuesday's championship match starts at 7 p.m.