DAVENPORT, Iowa --- The deciding fifth set continued to be a thorn for the University of St. Francis women's volleyball team as the Saints dropped their second match of the week in the penultimate set and slipped to 1-5 in said matches with their 25-15, 21-25, 23-25, 25-20, 15-11 setback to St. Ambrose University in Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference play on Thursday night.

USF (12-15, 8-5 CCAC) got out of the gate slowly with its ten-point loss in the first set, but rallied to take each of the next two sets. The Saints doubled up on St. Ambrose to close out Set 2 with eight of the last 12 points following the final tie at 17-all.

In Set 3, St. Francis trailed for much of the match, including by as many as seven points (15-8), before going on an unanswered seven-point run to turn a 20-15 deficit into a 22-20 advantage. A pair of ties at 22 and 23 would follow before a Peyton Baird kill and an attacking error by the hosts enabled the Saints to prevail.

St. Ambrose (15-10, 7-7) started its comeback in Set 4 by scoring 11 of 14 points in one stretch to turn a 6-5 lead into a 17-8 advantage. From there, the Saints would never get closer than four points the rest of the set.

USF was able to build a pair of one-point leads in the deciding fifth set, but a final 4-0 run, including two kills from Mackenzie Grafton, closed out the comeback victory for the Fighting Bees.

The loss overshadowed a strong offensive performance by Lauren Stefanski, who totaled 13 kills against only one error in 30 chances for a .400 attacking clip. Desiree Anderson led the Saints with 14 kills, while St. Ambrose's Jill Kavalauskas led all attackers with 18 kills to go along with 14 digs.

The Bees had three players finish with double-figure kill totals. St. Francis just missed doing the same with Taylor Connolly's nine kills.

Defensively, the Saints were led by Hannah Monfre's 14 digs and Stephanie Woods' six blocks.

Up Next
The Saints open up a three-match homestand on Tuesday night when they face CCAC foe Indiana University Northwest in a 7 pm matchup.

Live coverage can be found at gofightingsaints.com/coverage. You can also keep up with all things USF on Twitter @USFSaints.