The Canisius volleyball team defeated Fairfield University in five sets (20-25, 25-16, 24-26, 25-19, 16-14 in the Koessler Athletic Center on Saturday afternoon. The Golden Griffins went the distance for the third time in the last four matches and are now 4-4 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Sophomore Katlyn Tyler matched her career high with 18 kills while junior Lauren Siebert had 15 kills and a .500 attack percentage. Junior Rachel Kline posted her fourth straight double-double with 12 kills and 18 digs. Junior Grace Streicher recorded 47 assists and 11 digs while senior Emily Litwin had 25 digs. Sophomore Jacklyn Malusa had eight blocks as Canisius posted 10 team blocks.

“That's a match where we had to control our emotions at a number of different moments, especially in that tight fifth set,” Canisius coach Cathy Hummel said. “Lauren got us a number of kills early and that opened up the outside down the stretch, especially on the final point of the match.”

Fairfield (9-10, 5-4 MAAC) won the first three points and never trailed in the opening set. The Griffs broke open the second set with a 10-2 run, including two kills from freshman Kristin Bendy and capped by blocks from Kline, Streicher and Siebert, as Canisius went on to even the match.

Fairfield held a 24-20 lead in the third set before Canisius fought off four set points. The Stags came out of a timeout and won the next two points to go up 2-1 in the match. The Griffs scored the opening nine points of the fourth set, all on the serve of Streicher, and never trailed en route to forcing the fifth set.

The fifth set featured 12 ties and three lead changes, after the first four sets featured eight ties and three lead changes. Fairfield led 10-9, but the Griffs scored the next three points to go up 12-10. Fairfield fought off a match point at 14-13, but a kill from Tyler gave Canisus a second match point.  A kill down the line from Bendy gave Canisius the victory.

Caitlin Stapleton led Fairfield with 17 kills while Megan Theiller had 15 kills. Camille Coffey posted 28 digs.

Canisius (4-13, 4-4 MAAC) concludes the weekend against Quinnipiac University on Sunday, with match time set for 1 p.m. in the KAC.

Notes: Canisius has now won four of the last seven meetings between the teams in the KAC… Malusa is averaging 1.22 blocks per set in MAAC play… Litwin has 20 or more digs in four straight matches and was 56-for-56 on service receptions on Saturday… Streicher's double-double was her seventh of the season… Tyler now has double-digit kills in six of the last nine matches… Bendy returned to the lineup after missing the last three matches with an upper-body injury… Senior Olivia Chrzanowski had 10 digs, posting double-digit digs for the fifth time in 2014… Kline is the first Canisius player with four straight double-doubles since Brittany Gerde in 2007.