MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. --- The Ave Maria University volleyball team fell on the road against the St. Thomas Bobcats, 3-1, in a battle for fifth place in conference. Ave Maria drops to 5-8 in conference play but remain two games ahead of Warner and Webber International for the final spot in The Sun Conference tournament.
 
The Gyrenes started slowly which allowed St. Thomas to jump out to a 13-6 lead in the opening set and cruise to a 25-11 first set win. AMU had five kills and nine errors in the first set compared to 12 kills and five errors by St. Thomas.
 
The roles reversed in the second set. AMU rode a 10 kill, three error set to a 25-16 win. Four straight points by Ave Maria broke a 6-6 tie and gave the Gyrenes a 10-6 advantage. St. Thomas hung in the set before the Blue and Green won the final six points of the set to win the second 25-16 and tie the match at one.
 
The Gyrenes continued that momentum into the third set where they jumped out to a 6-1 lead. St. Thomas battled back and after five-straight points took a 9-7 lead over AMU. With the Gyrenes trailing by two, AMU won five in a row on Miah Pena's serve to take a 17-14 lead. Later in the set, AMU saved two STU set points to tie the match at 25 before the Bobcats won the next two to take the second 27-25.
 
In the fourth set, AMU won four straight points to cut into an early St. Thomas lead and pull within one, 11-10. From that point on, St. Thomas began to pull away from the Gyrenes. Four straight gave STU a 16-11 lead and another four-point spurt later in the set extended their advantage to seven, 22-15. The Bobcats went on to win the set 25-18 and close out the match in four, 3-1.
 
In the second and third sets, when AMU won a set and narrowly lost the third, the Gyrenes combined for 22 kills and 10 errors, compared to the the first and fourth sets when they had 16 kills and 20 attack errors.
 
Madelyn Haut led the Gyrenes with 14 kills followed by Alejandra Suarez with seven and McKenna Tyson with seven. Setter Katie Grose tallied 35 kills while libero Victoria Schain finished with 20 digs.
 
Pena had three service aces. As a team, AMU had five aces and eight service errors.
 
St. Thomas' Amanda Allende led all players with 21 kills on the night.
 
The Gyrenes return home on Friday night for their final non-conference game of the season and penultimate home game when they host Trinity College (Fla.) at 7 p.m.