St. Ambrose capped a perfect season against Midwest Collegiate Conference foes by defeating Viterbo 3-1 Saturday night in the league's tournament championship match in front of an energetic crowd in Lee Lohman Arena. With the win, the Queen Bees clinch a berth in the NAIA National Championships which start Saturday, Nov. 21. SAU is 34-7 overall and won all 12 matches against MCC opponents this year.

Nothing came easy Saturday against a valiant Viterbo (31-11) squad. The V-Hawks dominated the first set 25-18 before the Queen Bees rallied to win the final three sets, by scores of 25-21, 26-24, 25-16.

"This was the kind of play you expect in a championship match," said SAU head coach Bruce Billingsley. "Both teams had scoring runs and opportunities to win. I'm excited that we were able to dig down and pull it out. This was a real team effort - 12 players played in this match and all 12 were criticial to our success."

With the match knotted at one set each, Viterbo led as late as 23-20 in the third set. But four straight SAU points put the Bees in front and Megan Macyauski's kill gave the Bees the set 26-24 and a 2-1 lead.

St. Ambrose left little doubt in the fourth set, taking a 12-5 lead before winning the final six points of the match to close out Viterbo 25-16.

Amy Royer led all players with 17 kills. Kait Gallagher had 13 and Catherine Wildner added 11 in the win. Lauren Aderman paced the Bees with 32 assists.

Abby Breitung (15) and Amy Braaksma (12) led the V-Hawks with double-digit kills. Amanda Bennett had 23 assists and Stacie Hoffman added 19.

Now the Bees must wait until Sunday night to see where they will begin play in the 36-team national tournament.

Video highlights of the MCC Championship match, courtesy SAU's TV-11.