The Canisius volleyball team finished the 2013 season with a four-set loss to first-place Fairfield University on Sunday afternoon in the Koessler Athletic Center. The Stags won 14-25, 25-17, 25-19, 25-23 as Canisius finishes the season with an 11-18 overall record and 9-9 in record in MAAC play.

Sophomore Lauren Siebert led all players with 13 kills and a .600 attack percentage, to go along with four blocks. Freshman Katlyn Tyler had 11 kills and three service aces. Senior Emily Elek had eight kills while senior Sydney Palka had 25 assists and eight digs.

“We came out flying with a lot of energy and that just wasn't sustainable for the entire match,” Canisius coach Cathy Hummel said. “We played hard with nothing on the line and I'm proud of that. We also saw two great performances from our underclassmen, and we're excited to see that in the coming year.

“This group of seniors had a great-four year career and hopefully their impact will continued to be felt with this program.”

Canisius dominated the opening set, recording kills on 10 of their first 20 swings. The Griffs used a five-point run early in the set, including back-to-back aces from Tyler, to go up 12-5. The Griffs continued to roll in the set, leading by as many as 13 points en route to taking the early lead in the match. Fairfield bounced back and pulled away in the second set with a 10-3 run to go up 22-13 and eventually even the match at one set apiece.

After Fairfield (17-12, 14-4 MAAC)  won the third set to go up 2-1 in the match, the teams played a tightly contested fourth set. Canisius took an early 7-5 lead on a block from senior Jessica Warner and Hernandez. The Stags won the next four points to go up 9-7, but Canisius regained the lead at 14-13 on a kill from Tyler. Fairfield against used a four-point spurt to go up 17-14, but three straight Fairfield attack errors evened the score at 17-17. Fairfield went up 22-19 before Siebert recorded kills on three of the next four points to make it a one-point game at 23-22. Fairfield earned two match points after a Canisius error. A solo block from Hernandez fought off the first match point but a Canisius attack error clinched the match for Fairfield.

Caitlin Stapleton led Fairfield with 12 kills. Hayley Moyer had 11 kills, a .476 attack percentage and six block assists. Rachel Romansky posted 40 assists and 13 digs.

Notes: Canisius posted a league record of .500 or better for the seventh time in the last eight seasons… Junior Emily Litwin had 17 digs, posting double-digit digs in 28 matches, including the final 25 matches of the season… Sophomore Rachel Kline had 11 digs, recording 10 or more digs in the final three matches of the year and in 11 matches overall in 2013… The 13 kills for Siebert were her most since posting 19 kills against Bucknell on Sept. 14… Hernandez had at least one block in all 29 matches of her senior season. She finished the year with 102 block assists, the fourth-highest total in program history.