St. Ambrose got off to a great start but couldn't maintain its level of play in a 15-25, 25-23, 25-16, 25-18 loss to Indiana Northwest Wednesday night in Lee Lohman Arena.

The Bees put down 13 kills against just four hitting errors for a .281 hitting percentage in the first set in the conference opener for both teams. SAU was nearly as strong in the second set, hitting at a .244 clip. But after building a 10-5 lead on a Hannah Krouse kill in the second, St. Ambrose allowed IU Northwest (4-6, 1-0 CCAC) to climb back into the match.

With the score tied at 18-18 on another kill from Krouse, the RedHawks ran off a string of four straight points. The Bees came back with three of their own, highlighted by a service ace from Marta Barriguinha, but would never again pull even. The teams exchanged points from there with Northwest leveling the match at one set apiece.

A four-point run put St. Ambrose in a 7-3 hole early in the third. Later, a 9-1 spurt helped the RedHawks to a 21-13 advantage and they closed out the set minutes later.

SAU (2-4, 0-1 CCAC) recovered in the early stages of the fourth set, grabbing a 9-8 lead. But that was followed by six straight IU Northwest points. A RedHawk hitting error and a Krouse kill closed the gap to 14-11, but another big run, this one six points, created too large of a deficit for the Bees to overcome.

Over the final two sets, St. Ambrose totaled 19 kills while committing 18 hitting errors. Northwest had 21 kills and eight errors over the same stretch.

Krouse and Grace Beitzel led the Bees with 14 kills apiece. The two combined for just six hitting errors.

Barriguinha finished with eight kills. Sofia Pabon was credited with two kills while Olivia Johnson and Chloe Fabry each put down two. Emily Hickerson had the other Bee kill.

Ines Marques led the team with 25 assists. Haley Doucet recorded 15. Kennedy DeBaillie picked up 25 digs to lead all players. Adriana Diaz had 21. Barriguinha and Olivia Hoskins recorded seven digs apiece.

St. Ambrose will compete in a two-day event hosted by Indiana Tech Friday and Saturday. The Bees will face Indiana Southeast, Defiance College, West Virginia Tech and Indiana Tech.