SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - No. 22 Augustana volleyball will host the Augustana Invitational Sept. 9-10 at the Sanford Pentagon. The Vikings welcome Chadron State, Southern Indiana and No. 13 Winona State to this year's invitational.

Augustana will open the tournament at 10 a.m. on Friday with a match against Chadron State before playing Southern Indiana in the night cap which will begin at 7 p.m. On Saturday Augustana will again play Chadron State with the first serve set for 12:30 p.m. followed by a marquee match-up against No. 13 Winona State at 6 p.m. First Serve
• Augustana will host the Augustana Invitational Sept. 9-10 at the Sanford Pentagon
• The Vikings will compete against Chadron State twice, Southern Indiana and Winona State in a non-conference match-up
• Last weekend Augustana competed in the Lewis University Flyer Festival and left with a perfect 4-0 record
• After losing all five, 5-set matches that Augustana was in last season they won three 5-setmatches at the Flyer Festival
• In their final match of the Flyer Festival Augustana fell into an early two sets to none deficit and battled back to take the match 3-2
• The Vikings upset No. 3 Palm Beach Atlantic 3-1 in their second match of the year
• The upset of No. 3 PBA was Augustana first win over an AVCA Top-5 team since upset No. 5 Wayne State last season
 
In The Rankings
• Augustana made their 2016 American Volleyball Coaches Association Top-25 debut this week coming in at No. 22 with 239 points
• Last season the Vikings didn't enter the AVCA Top-25 Poll until Sept. 24
• The Vikings have been ranked in the AVCA Top-25 poll a total of 204 times of the possible 386 polls. Only Central Missouri has been ranked in every AVCA Poll.
• Augustana currently trails Grand Valley State in total number of weeks ranked by just four and North Dakota State by 12 weeks.
• The Vikings 204 appearances in the AVCA Poll is the 10th most all-time. The only NSIC team to have more appearances is Minnesota Duluth who have been ranked the third most times with 310.
• Augustana's highest rank in school history was second back on Dec. 5, 2000
• The Vikings have had a lot of success in program history and shows with the number of top-10 rankings the program has earned. Augustana has been ranked in the top-10 69 times. That is the 24th most top-10 rankings in Division II history. They are just one top-10 ranking away from tying UC San Diego and North Alabama
• In 2015 the Vikings were ranked for a total of 10 weeks. Their 2015 AVCA debut came after a 7-1 start to the season and a 4-0 record at the Augustana Showcase. The Vikings debuted at No. 25 on Sept. 24, 2015
• The Vikings find themselves ranked second in this week's NSIC Poll. They trail Winona State who is 5-0.
• There are currently six, undefeated teams in the conference

The Vikings Statistically
• Augustana posted some impressive numbers in their first week of action at the Flyer Festival. The Vikings
• Augustana had eight double-doubles in their first week: Brittany Cech and Courtney Place each had one, Hanna Justesen and Anna Sykora each had three. Last season the team didn't hit eight double-doubles until Oct. 2
• Ashley Wilson had a season-high .577 hitting percentage against Michigan Tech on Sept. 3
• Place tied a career-high in kills with 21 against No. 3 Palm Beach Atlantic. She also had 21 kills against Dayton while playing at UND
• Sykora set career-highs in assists (51), digs (19), kills (7) and blocks (1)
• Augustana was out hit by their opponents in two of their four matches this weekend
• Had double-digit blocks three times at the Flyer Festival (11 against UW-Parkside, 10 against Michigan Tech, 12 against Central Washington)
• Justesen's 14 kills against No. 3 Palm Beach Atlantic was a new career-high. Her previous career-high was 13 while she was at George Washington against VCU (10/2/15)
• Justesen also set a new career-high in digs with 18 vs Central Washington. Her previous career-high was 16 vs Dayton (11/21/15)
• The Vikings are currently 11th in the NSIC in team hitting percentage at .222
• Augustana leads the NSIC in total assists with 244 and are fifth in assists per set average at 12.84
• Through one week, Augustana is fourth in the NSIC in kills per set average at 13.95
• Place is fifth in the NSIC in total kills with 68
• Sykora is third in the conference in total assists with 193
• Ashley Wilson is fourth in the NSIC in blocks per set with 1.06. She is second in total blocks with 19 and tied for first in solo blocks with 5
• Tahlyr Banks is fifth in the NSIC with a digs per set average of 4.58
• The Vikings 73 kills against No. 3 Palm Beach Atlantic was the most of any team in the conference
 
Augustana Hosting Tournaments
• The Augustana Invitational will be the Vikings fourth straight season with a tournament in Sioux Falls
• This will be the first tournament though that the Vikings have hosted that they have not played in the Elmen Center
• The 2013 and 2014 seasons the tournament was called the NSIC Challenge and last year it was called the Augustana Showcase
• Augustana has a perfect 12-0 record in their early season tournaments
• Last season the Vikings defeated Black Hills State, Northwest Missouri State, Southwest Baptist and No. 8 Grand Valley State