9/2: A pre-holiday edition of GRIFFinfo today as the school year is officially in full swing. The first day of class was on Monday and the Koessler Athletic Center is much busier than it has been during the past few months. Physicals, academics, undergraduate and graduate class, Work Study interviews, in-season practices, conditioning sessions and weight room workouts are some of the activities taking place in the building.

• Kevin Mailloux had an extremely hot month of August (reaching base in more than 20 consecutive games) and leads the Northwest League with 15 home runs, 61 runs and is second with 50 RBI and a .942 OPS. Here's an article about Mailloux from the month of August.

• Kevin Mahoney has taken advantage of his promotion to the Charleston RiverDogs of the South Atlantic League. Mahoney was hitting .276 in 38 games with Staten Island of the New York-Penn League and since moving up to Charleston, Mahoney is hitting .305 with an .882 OPS in 25 games with Charleston.
• Also, former Griffs Steve McQuail is hitting .246 with the Auburn Doubledays of the New York-Penn League and had a three-hit game on Aug. 27.

Former Canisius men's basketball player Darren Fenn will return to the Artland Dragons of the Basketball Bundsliga, the top professional men's basketball league in Germany. Fenn led the Dragons in scoring last season, averaging 15.1 points per game while shooting 58 percent from the field and 80.5 percent from the free-throw line. Artland's season is set to begin Oct. 29. We'll have updates on other Canisius basketball alumni throughout the year.

• From the news wire - Here's a profile on former Griff John Axford in the USA Today. Axford has taken a hold of the closer's role in Milwaukee and hasn't let go.
• The Canisius volleyball team starts its season at Noon today. The Griffs will play three matches in the Hofstra Invitational before playing one match at St. Francis (N.Y.) on Sunday. The Griffs only graduated two seniors, but there are a lot of new faces on that team who will get some early playing time.
• As mentioned earlier, Canisius women's soccer starts the home schedule tonight against St. Francis (Pa.). The Griffs are 19-8-1 all-time in home openers at the Demske and 2-0-0 in home openers under third-year coach Jim Wendling. Canisius is 4-0-0 in its last four home matches against St. Francis (Pa.).
  

8/16: Back for another week of GRIFFinfo. After a very hot and humid week in Western New York for the start of volleyball and women's soccer camp, the weather seems to have broken and will be in the upper 70s and less humid this week. Men's soccer reported to camp over the weekend and cross country is hitting the trails soon.

• From the news wire - Canisius alum John Eckel has been named the head athletic trainer at Whitman College, which is located in the fantastic city name of Walla, Walla, Wash.
  
  Here's your Minor League Baseball update:

• Kevin Mailloux (Everett Aquasox) is hitting .450 in the last 10 games with 17 runs scored, seven home runs and 13 RBI. Here's an article on Mailloux's hot streak.
• Steve McQuail (Auburn Doubledays) is on a five-game hitting streak and is hitting .370 during the last eight games with seven runs scored, two HR and five RBI with a .951 OPS.
  
• Kevin Mahoney (Charleston RiverDawgs) is hitting .282 on the season, having played at four different levels throughout the season.

8/11: With two Canisius athletics teams (women's soccer and volleyball) on the practice field for the beginning of Fall Camp today, it's time to resurrect our GRIFFinfo blog. After we started the blog last year, it fell off throughout the year. We're going to give it a try again and promise to be more dedicated throughout the school year.

• Both of those teams reported on Tuesday, having some meetings and getting the physicals completed. The meetings took place in the new team meeting room on the second floor of the Koessler Athletic Center. That room, along with a number of new coaches' offices, is located above the Center for Athletic Training. We'll have some photos of the new construction in the near future.

• The volleyball team got in the gym last night and both teams are in full swing today. As with every fall camp, it always seems to be hot and humid at this time of year. The women's soccer team started at 8 am this morning, including a conditioning test of a two-mile run. Team previews of all the fall teams will be online in the coming weeks.

• The men's basketball team is holding offensive skills camp this week in the Koessler Athletic Center. A number of players are serving as counselors for the dozens of campers. Junior Rokas Gricius is a counselor for the second straight week after working the women's basketball camp last week.

• Fifty-nine days until the first Canisius-Niagara meeting in a Battle of the Bridge contest.

• If you have any tips, e-mail GRIFFinfo.

• Canisius opened the season with a win in its first match of the season, defeating host Hofstra in four sets on Aug. 27.
• Canisius won its first match of the season for the second time in the last three years.
• Sophomore Samanatha Good was named the MAAC Offensive Player of the Week on Monday — the first Griff to win the award since Michelle Godfrey on Oct. 20, 2008.
• Senior Renee Lettow had a double-double in the season-opening win, the 19th of her career.
• Junior Layne Adams tied her career high with 13 kills against St. Francis (N.Y.) on Sunday.
• Sophomore Emily Elek had eight kills on Sunday, matching her total from the first three matches of the season combined.
• Sophomore Allyson Severyn now has double-digit digs in 31 of her 33 career matches.
• Canisius posted a .363 attack percentage in the loss at St. Francis (N.Y.) — the highest attack percentage in a loss in program history.
• Canisius won the second set 25-7, the biggest win in a set since a 30-6 win against Quinnipiac on Sept. 2, 2006.
  
• The first set continues to be a predictor for the Griffs. Dating back to last season, they are 12-2 when winning the first set and 0-19 when losing the first set.

LET'S LOOK AT THE OPPONENTS

• Davidson opened the season with a 2-1 record at the James Madison Tournament last weekend, defeating UNC Asheville and Stetson and falling to James Madison. The Wildcats were projected to finish fourth in the Southern Conference after going 9-23 during the 2009 season.
  
• East Tennessee State is 1-3 on the season after going 1-2 at the Deacon Invitational last weekend. The Buccaneers also lost in five sets to Appalachian State on Tuesday. East Tennessee State was picked seventh in the Atlantic Sun after going 11-18 last season.
  
• Norfolk State is 3-2 on the season after a five-set win at Hampton on Tuesday night. The Spartans split their four matches in the Spartan classic last weekend — defeating Providence and Navy while losing to UNC Greensboro and Kent State. Norfolk State was picked to finish in fourth place of the Southern Division of the MEAC after going 9-22 in 2009.
  
• Radford is 0-4 on the season after dropping all four matches at the Robert Morris/Duquesne Tournament last weekend. The Highlanders were picked to finish ninth in the nine-team Big South conference.
  

GOOD START TO THE SEASON

• Sophomore Samantha Good was named the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week on Monday.
• In four matches last week, Good averaged 3.93 kills per set to go along with a .411 attack percentage and 0.93 blocks per set en route to being named to the all-Tournament Team at the Hofstra/Asics Invitational.
• Good had 20 kills in the four-set match against St. Francis (N.Y.) on Sunday — the second 20-kill match of her career. Good also had a .643 attack percentage in the match — the fifth-best percentage by a Golden Griffin in a match in program history.
• A preseason all-MAAC selection, Good was a three-time MAAC Rookie of the Week last season and also was named to the all-MAAC Second Team in 2009 — the first Canisius freshman to earn all-MAAC honors in the last 10 years.