BURNSVILLE, Minn. -- Coming off their ninth straight NSIC regular season title and eighth straight NSIC Tournament title, the Augustana women's tennis team was named No. 1 in the NSIC Preseason Women's Tennis Coaches' Poll released Thursday. The Vikings picked up 11-of-12 first-place votes and 121 points. 

Augustana's success starts with head coach Marc Kurtz, who is in his 15th season at the helm of the Viking ship. In his 15 seasons at Augustana, Kurtz has compiled a 202-43 (.834) record and gone undefeated in each of the past night NSIC regular seasons.

Augustana's Kornelia Staniszewska was also named NSIC Preseason Player of the Year. A year ago, Staniszewska went 18-0 in No. 1 singles and 23-3 in No. 1 doubles and ended the season ranked 14th nationally. In three years at Augustana, Staniszewska has been named the league's player of the year each season. An eight-time player of the week recipient, the senior from Poland is also a three-time ITA All-America selection.

The Vikings also return a strong supporting cast, starting with Junior Taylor Jackson and Annika Teske. A native of Minneapolis, Jackson is a two-time All-NSIC selection and finished last season with a 17-3 record. Teske was an impressive 17-4 last year as she earned NSIC Honorable Mention honors.

Sophomore Grace Goble, a Rapid City, S.D. native earned second team all-conference in singles last season and will look to build on a 17-3 single campaign last season.

Overall, the team went 105-19 in singles matches and 61-14 in doubles. In conference matches, the Vikings went undefeated in both singles and doubles play.

The Vikings exhibition season started last week with a pair of exhibition matches. Augustana started with a 4-0 loss over Iowa State and fell 4-1 to Drake University.

Augustana officially begins play this weekend as they travel to Nebraska to take on Rockhurst (IL) and Nebraska-Kearney before conference play begins Feb. 9 in Bismarck vs. U-Mary.