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This week
Augustana (11-8, 5-6 NSIC) begins its week on the road Tuesday, traveling to Marshall, Minn., for a match against No. 9 Southwest Minnesota State. The Vikings will then be in Bismarck, N.D., Friday to face U-Mary (2-18, 1-10 NSIC) and will head to Aberdeen, S.D., Saturday to play Northern State (10-8, 5-6 NSIC). All three matches will begin at 7 p.m.
Where to catch the Vikings this weekend
Fans can follow Augustana live in its matches this week by watching live stats and a live video stream. The video stream is brought to fans free of charge through New Media TV and can be found by logging onto www.nmtvsports.com.
Click
here for live stats at Southwest Minnesota State.
Click
here for live stats at U-Mary.
Click
here for live stats at Northern State.
Last time out
The Vikings rebounded with a 3-2 (25-16, 17-25, 25-15, 20-25, 15-12) victory over Minnesota, Crookston last Saturday after dropping 3-1 (25-18, 24-26, 26-24, 25-18) to Minnesota State Moorhead on Friday.
Series records
Augustana and Southwest Minnesota State have faced each other 50 times, and the Vikings hold a 28-21-1 record over the Mustangs. The two teams met in Sioux Falls earlier this month, and SMSU won 3-0 (25-15, 26-24, 25-19). The victory marked the Mustangs' 10th consecutive win over Augustana.
Ashley Buckley is 0-7 against SMSU. U-Mary has yet to win a match against Augustana as the Vikings lead the series 6-0. Augustana also faced the Marauders earlier this season in conference action and the result was a 3-0 (25-17, 25-21, 25-23) win for the Vikings at home. Augustana defeated Northern State 3-0 (25-18, 25-23, 25-19) in September to move to 16-5-2 in the series with the Wolves. Buckley is 5-0 against U-Mary and 4-2 against NSU.
Setting for success
Dani Haley (Owatonna, Minn.) put on her second-best performance of the season against Minnesota, Crookston last Saturday, recording 57 assists. She helped Augustana hit .309 in the match as four Vikings earned double-digit kills. She tallied 102 assists (11.33 per set) during the weekend to climb back onto the list of the NSIC leaders (conference matches only). She currently ranks No. 4 in the conference with 11.42 assists per game.
Aces wild
Augustana knows how to earn a quick point as it currently averages 1.24 services aces per game to rank third in the NSIC (conference matches only) behind Concordia, St. Paul (1.83 per game) and Wayne State (1.61 per game).
Lindsey Petersen (Elkhart, Iowa) and
Kayla Wallerich (Marshall, Minn.) have proven to be the best at getting the Vikings a free point off a serve as they are tied with 23 aces on the season to lead the Vikings. Next in line is
Christine Bielski (Chaska, Minn.),
Brooke Lewko (Lakeville, Minn.) and
Courtney Ysker (Windom, Minn.) who each have 13 aces. Last weekend, Augustana totaled 11 aces in its two matches as
Holly Hafemeyer (Fairbault, Minn.) and Petersen led the team with three aces apiece.
.300
The Vikings have hit over .300 just three times this season and most recently last Saturday against Minnesota, Crookston.
Mikayla Gallagher (Ramsey, Minn.) was flawless as she had eight kills and no errors for a .615 attack percent, while
Taylor Hrdlichka (Lakeville, Minn.) smashed 10 kills and hit .500.
Jordan Spatenka (Owatonna, Minn.) and
Holly Hafemeyer (Faribault, Minn.) were also impressive offensively with 16 and 10 kills, respectively, while each had hitting percentages over .300.
Holly Hafemeyer
Not many balls get past
Holly Hafemeyer (Fairbault, Minn.) as she remains No. 5 in the conference with 1.00 blocks per set (conference matches only). She has blocked 75 balls this season, including a career-high nine against Minnesota State on Oct. 8. She also ranks fifth in the NSIC with a .312 hitting percent (129-27-327). Hafemeyer has hit .300 or better in 12 matches this season, including eight out of 11 conference matches.
History lesson
Augustana is in its 39th year of competition in 2011 and own an all-time record of 807-545-14. The Vikings have made 14 NCAA Tournament appearances with the last one occurring in 2008.
Coaches' corner
The 2011 season marks
Ashley Buckley's fourth as Augustana's head volleyball coach. Buckley has compiled a career record of 62-52 with the Vikings and is assisted by Kasey Nikkel, who is in her second season as a full-time assistant with the Augustana volleyball program. Also assisting Buckley is second-year graduate assistant coach Lisa Lunning and first-year volunteer coach Mitch Lunning.
In twenty ten
Augustana finished seventh in the NSIC last season with a conference record of 10-10. The Vikings were 14-15 overall.
Dani Haley,
Grace Sanders and
Jordan Spatenka led the team in assists (970), digs (589) and kills (266), respectively, for the second consecutive season.
What the coaches say
Augustana was picked sixth by the league coaches in the 2011 NSIC Preseason Poll released by the conference office. The Vikings received 106 points in the poll.
Rk Team (first-place votes) Points
1 Concordia, St. Paul (13) 169
2 Southwest Minnesota State (1) 146
3 Minnesota Duluth 143
4 Wayne State 142
5 Minnesota State 120
6 Augustana 106
7 Minnesota State Moorhead 93
8 St. Cloud State 81
Winona State 81
10 Northern State 55
Upper Iowa 55
12 Bemidji State 41
13 U-Mary 21
Minnesota, Crookston 21
Stay connected
It's easy to know the latest on Viking athletics. You can follow Augustana on its various social media outlets, including Twitter (twitter.com/GoAugie), Facebook (facebook.com/GoAugie) and YouTube (youtube.com/GoAugie). To learn more, visit GoAugie.com/stayconnected. For Augustana home broadcasts,
visit www.GoAugie.com/webcast.
Video webcasts
The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference and New Media Television have again teamed up to webcast each conference volleyball game in 2011. A complete broadcast schedule is available at www.northernsun.org.
Up next
The Vikings will host its Bump, Set, Hike match on Oct. 25 as No. 1 Concordia, St. Paul travels to the Elmen Center for a 7 p.m. match.
