ABERDEEN, S.D. – Key contributions from all over the court lifted the Augustana volleyball team to a 3-1 victory over Northern State to give the Vikings their first NSIC Tournament win in program history Wednesday night.

The sixth-seeded Vikings dropped the first set 19-25, but stormed back to win the next three, 25-19, 25-19, 25-21 to knock the third-seeded Wolves out of the conference tournament.

"Winning on the road in the NSIC is as tough as it gets and winning the first round of the conference tournament is even tougher." head coach Jennifer Jacobs said. "I have to give it up to the team tonight. We were able to grind through that match after dropping that first set which was no easy task. Hats off to Northern, they played really well."

Lauren Waite, a senior outside hitter from Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, led the Vikings with a match-high 19 kills and added four block assists. Ashley Wilson crushed 14 kills on 32 swings to hit for a match-high .375 on the night. The senior from Sioux Falls, S.D. tallied four digs and three block assists.

Junior Courtney place was the lone Viking to record a double-double. The outside hitter rocketed 13 kills and muscled 11 digs for Augustana.

Alex Banker, a senior setter from Omaha, Nebraska, accumulated 49 assists and eight digs.

Four Vikings registered double-figure digs on the night. The two-time NSIC libero of the year Tahlyr Banks led the way with 22 digs, while Hanna Justesen posted 18. Kaylea Ahrens had 13 digs while Place had 11.

After Northern State hit for a .432 hitting percentage in the first set, the Augustana defense started to click, as the Wolves were only able to hit -.098 in the second set, .114 in the third and .146 in the fourth set.

The Vikings hit .255 in the first set, .038 in the second, .243 in the third and .241 in the fourth set.
Augustana (23-8, 13-7 NSIC) takes on second-seeded Southwest Minnesota State Saturday, Nov. 18 at noon at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The two teams met in the first conference match of the season, with the Mustangs taking the match, 3-2 in the Elmen Center.