Burnsville, Minn. – Augustana volleyball was picked to finish fourth in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Volleyball Preseason Coaches Poll after receiving 172 points and one first-place vote.
 
For the 14th consecutive season, Concordia-St. Paul has been selected by the league coaches to win the NSIC after receiving 10 of the possible 16 first-place votes.

The Golden Bears are coming off a season in which they won a share of the NSIC regular season title, the NSIC Tournament Championship and the NCAA National Championship.

Southwest Minnesota State, which shared the NSIC regular season title with Concordia-St. Paul last year, was picked second as the Mustangs received 202 points and three first place votes.  Minnesota Duluth was picked third in the poll with 201 points and a pair of first place votes.

For the second year in a row, the NSIC named senior libero Tahlyr Banks as the Vikings 2017 "Player to Watch."

Banks, who was tabbed the 2016 NSIC Libero of the Year, set a single-season school record for digs in a season with 662 against No. 2 Nebraska-Kearney in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and earned a digs per set average of 5.30 which was the fourth highest single-season average in school history.

Also, Banks was named to the 2016 Daktronics/D2CCA All-Central Region first team, and was an honorable mention on the AVCA Division II All-Region team.
Southwest Minnesota State's Taylor Reiss was named the NSIC Preseason Player of the Year. The junior outside hitter was the 2016 NSIC Player of the Year and was an AVCA First Team All-American.

The Vikings report to fall camp Sunday Aug. 13 with the first practice of the 2017 season scheduled for the following day at 10 a.m.

Augustana opens the 2017 season at the Oredigger Classic in Golden, Colo. Friday, Sept. 1 at 2 p.m. and take on CSU San Bernardino.
 

Rank	School	Points
1	Concordia-St. Paul (10)	218
2	Southwest Minnesota State (1)	202
3	Minnesota Duluth (2)	201
4	Augustana (1)	172
5	Winona State	171
6	Wayne State	157
7	Sioux Falls	146
8	Northern State	133
9	Minnesota State	113
10	MSU Moorhead	77
11	Upper Iowa	74
12	Minnesota Crookston	71
13	St. Cloud State	70
14	UMary	54
15	Bemidji State	46
16	Minot State	15