Committing only nine attack errors and using 13 team blocks, the Canisius College volleyball team started MAAC play with a three-set win at Siena on Saturday. The Golden Griffins defeated the Saints 25-19, 25-19 and 27-25 to improve to 5-7 overall and 1-0 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Sophomore Emily Elek led the Griffs with 13 kills to go along with five blocks, making Elek one of five Griffs on the day with at least three blocks in the three-set match. Senior Renee Lettow and sophomore Samantha Good each had nine kills and one attack error. Junior Layne Adams led all players with six blocks, junior Janelle Davis had four blocks and Good and senior Jasmine Brennan each had three blocks. Davis led the team with 17 assists while sophomore Allyson Severyn led the Griffs with 19 digs.

"I felt coming into the match today that we had a good week of practice, and it was good to see that carry over to this win," Canisius coach Cathy Hummel said. "By no means was our team perfect today, but any road win is a good win in conference play."

The Griffs jumped on Siena (1-8, 0-1), scoring the first six points and never looking back in the first set. Canisius led by as many as 12 points, going up 18-6 on a kill from Elek. Siena got as close as 23-19, but two Saints errors gave the set to the Griffs.

Canisius would pull away midway through the second set, using a four-point run on the serve of Adams to turn an 8-8 tie into a 12-8 lead on back-to-back kills from Good. Canisius never let Siena get closer than two points the rest of the way, using three straight kills from Lettow and a Siena service error to go up 2-0 in the match.

The teams played a back-and-forth third set, which featured 16 ties and 12 lead changes as no team held more than a two-point lead. The Griffs trailed 20-18 after a kill from Brianne Bobo, but the Griffs used four straight points on the serve of Davis to go up 22-20. Siena won three consecutive points to take a 23-22 lead, but a kill from Lettow tied the match at 23-23. The teams traded points to keep the score tied at 25-25, and the Griffs used back-to-back kills from Elek to close out the match.

Canisius wraps up the weekend road trip on Sunday, when the Golden Griffins play at Marist. Match time is set for 2 p.m.

Match Notes: Canisius defeated Siena in three sets for the first time since Nov. 2, 2003... That win was also the last victory for the Griffs over the Saints in Loudonville, with Saturday's win ending a seven-match losing streak for the Griffs at Siena... Canisius improved its attack percentage in each set, posting a .371 percentage in the final set... Canisius improves to 23-11 in MAAC matches since 2006 when posting 10 or more blocks... Canisius won its opening MAAC road match for the third consecutive season... Lettow has two or fewer attack errors in three of the last four matches... The four blocks from Davis matched her season high from the four-set match at St. Francis (N.Y.)... Severyn has a service reception percentage of .950 or better in four straight matches...Adams has at least three blocks in four straight and in nine matches overall in 2010... Elek has double-digit kills in three of the last four matches... Freshman Lindsay Hanggi hasn't committed a service reception error in the last five matches... Brennan has three or more blocks in each of the last three matches... The 13 blocks were the most for the Griffs on the season and most since they had 16 at Manahttan on Sept. 27, 2009... The nine attack errors were the fewest on the year and fewest since the Griffs had nine against Iona on Sept. 19, 2009, also the first match on the conference schedule.