A devastating knee injury sidelined Emily Elek the summer before her freshman season at Canisius. It was an unlucky situation for the 2009 Emmaus graduate, who was looking to continue the success of her senior year, winning First Team All-State honors and the District 11 MVP award.

But she didn't get down or sulk, she worked through it and looked toward the following year.

"I think once I got past the injury part, which was rehabilitating with my trainer, the rest was mostly to get through it mentally," said Elek. "My trainer helped me so much getting through it, when I had bad days and all. My team is also really close, so it helped to have them there with me because it was a struggle, it really was to get back."

Elek bounced back in 2010, appearing in all 33 matches, and starting 27 for the Golden Griffins. She recorded 302 kills, which was the second-most by any Canisius freshman in the program's history.

In 2011, Elek contributed in 29 matches and was named to the MAAC All-Academic Team.

The athletic training major, who switched concentrations after the excellent work done by her trainers, is in the midst of leading her team back to the MAAC championship tournament, where it fell short in the first round a year ago to Niagara.

"I'm pretty excited about our season this year," said Elek. "We have seven new girls on the team and seven returning. It was really hard at first integrating seven new girls into the system, but our chemistry has started clicking lately and we're working really well together. I think we have a lot of potential to do well in the conference, and it started with those two big road wins [at Marist and at Siena], which helped with our confidence and just really showed that we can go out there and do something this year."

Canisius followed up those two wins with two home conference wins against Loyola and Rider to stake them to an early 4-0 mark in the MAAC.

The 2012 season has also been successful for Elek. She was named Player of the Week in the MAAC for the first week of September. Elek was the first Golden Griffin in 10 years to post 12 kills with zero errors in back-to-back matches.

"It's been crazy for me because I did struggle a little last season," said Elek. "Coming into this season and now I'm a right-side hitter I was an outside hitter all last year it was a change in the preseason to try and get down the different approaches. My setters have been awesome with getting perfect sets and helping me get my timing down. It's really cool to see it click now because it helps my team and we play positively. It works pretty well."

Elek comes from a background in sports, and the leadership of her family, along with Emmaus has helped her grow to being a collegiate athlete. Her mother, Deborah, played volleyball and basketball at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, and her aunt and uncle played field hockey and football at Albright and Moravian College.

"Emmaus was a great high school athletically and academically," Elek said. "It pushed me to higher levels and it helped prepare me with what I want to do with my life. We had great work ethic and teamwork at the Emmaus volleyball program, and my coaches helped me out a lot.

"My family is my biggest support. My mom and my dad, and my Aunt Donna come to almost all of my games and are always there cheering me on. They always help coach me in things I can do better. Over the years it has really helped a lot."