BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Canisius College volleyball team, battled back to win the final two sets, and earn the 3-2 victory over the Iona Gaels at the Koessler Athletic Center Saturday afternoon, during its annual Dig Pink game to promote Breast Cancer Awareness. With the win Canisius improves to 7-15 and 5-5 in conference, while Iona drops to 7-16 and 4-7 in MAAC play.

"I just try to remind them of what we do in practice, which is play every ball relentlessly, and they did that today," head coach Cathy Hummel said. "They chipped away until they got comfortable. We were working on a new linupe due to injuries, so maybe it took five sets for them to get comfortable playing together."

The Griffs opened up the match with a 25-21 victory, however Iona evened the match with a 25-20 win before the break. Coming out of the intermission, Iona took a 2-1 lead over the Griffs with a 25-19 win, before the Griffs turned the tide and won the next two sets, 25-23 and 15-8.

The Blue and Gold managed to record 56 kills and 20 errors on 166 attacks to post a .217 hitting percentage, while Iona was just below that with a .211 mark.

Lauren Siebert once again showed why she was an All-MAAC preaseason award winner, as she paced the team with 17 kills and just three errors to tally a tremendous .438 hitting percentage. No other Griff tallied double-digit kills but four players were on the doorstep, tallying nine, as Alexandra Brown, Jacklyn Malusa, Rachel Kline, and Sara Wesley all accomplished the feat.

Grace Streicher was impressive from the setter position, recording the assist and digs double-double, securing 44 assists and 11 digs on the afternoon.

Freshman Donnett Hickson got the start once again from the libero position and recrded eight digs and two assists.

Siebert not only was a force on the offensive end but also on the defensive end as well, tallying five total blocks, including one solo.

For Iona, Claire Archibald had 18 kills to pace the team, however she also had 10 errors and struggled with efficiency, posting a .136 hitting percentage. Archibald added 13 digs to record the double-double.

Natalie Ziskin also recorded a double-double from the setter position, recording 29 assist and 29 digs.

After splitting the first two sets with Iona, the Gaels took a 2-1 lead with a 25-19 win in the third frame. Iona appeared to be in control in the fourth stanza as well, jumping out to a 15-10 lead, however the Griffs remained resilient, scoring 8 of the next 11 points to knot things up at 18-18.

Things remained incredibly tight through the final part of the set, as there were four tied scores as it went down to the wire. With the score 22-22 The Griffs got two kills from Siebert and one from Streicher to stave off the loss, 25-23.

In the fifth set, the Griffs came out strong,  securing an 8-3 lead before the teams changed sides of the court. Iona started to come back later on, clawing back to within four points, 12-8, however an Iona service error and two-straight Julia Hrycyk service aces sealed the deal for the Golden Griffins.

Canisius will be back in action tomorrow afternoon as it completes its weekend-MAAC series with a rematch with Manhattan. That match is slated for 1 p.m. at the Koessler Athletic Center.