The Canisius College volleyball team rebounded from a first-set loss to sweep the next three sets and defeat Fairfield 18-25, 25-15, 25-16, 25-20 in the Koessler Athletic Center on Saturday. The Golden Griffins, winners in eight of their last 11, improve to 10-9 overall and 6-1 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Sophomore Samantha Good led the Golden Griffins with 13 kills and a .379 attack percentage while fellow sophomore Emily Elek had 12 kills and just one attack error on 32 attempts. Junior Janelle Davis had 29 assists, four service aces and eight block assists while junior Layne Adams also had eight block assists. Sophomore Allyson Severyn added a match-high 20 digs from the libero position.

"We came out too tight in the first set, thinking this match was more important than our other matches," Canisius coach Cathy Hummel said. "Once we settled down and got back to being ourselves, we played much better and were successful."

Fairfield (6-12, 5-2 MAAC) ran away with the first set, using an 8-2 run to break away from a 6-6 tie. The Stags never let Canisius get closer than four points the rest of the way and took the early lead in the match.

Canisius responded in the second set, winning the first three points and never relinquishing that lead. Elek had five kills in the set, as Canisius broke it open with a 6-1 run to take a 16-9 lead on a block by Elek and Good. Three straight blocks - three from Davis, two from Good and one from Adams - gave Canisius the 10-point win and evened the match at one set apiece.

The Griffs carried over that momentum to the third set, only allowing one tie at 1-1 and never trailing. Canisius won five straight points on the serve of freshman Sydney Palka to go up 9-3. Canisius maintained the comfortable margin throughout the set, with the Stags never getting closer than five points and Canisius went up two sets to one in the match.

The teams played the tightest set of the match in the fourth set, which featured 15 ties and eight lead changes. No team held more than a two-point lead until late in the set, when the Stags tied the match at 20-20 on two straight kills. Canisius then won five straight points, including two service aces from Davis, to close out the match.

Brianna Dixion led the Stags with 12 kills while Haililani Pokipala had 11 kills. Rachel Romansky had a match-high 42 assists and Alex Lopez had 12 digs.

Canisius concludes the weekend against Iona on Sunday, with match time set for 2 p.m.

Match Notes: Canisius moves into a two-way tie with Niagara for first place in the conference standings after the Purple Eagles defeated Iona in three sets on Saturday... Canisius defeats Fairfield for the second time in the last three years in the Koessler Athletic Center... The eight blocks tie a career high for Davis, as she also had eight against Manhattan on Sept. 27, 2009... The four service aces for Davis also matched her career high for the fourth time... Adams also matched her career high with eight blocks, which last came on Oct. 17, 2009, against Manhattan... Canisius had 12 blocks on the day, improving to 26-11 since the 2006 season when recording 10 or more blocks against a MAAC opponent... Severyn had 20-plus digs for the third straight match... Good has hit .370 or better in four of the last five matches... Canisius improves to 29-10 in its last 39 home MAAC matches.