Tachikara-NAIA Volleyball Coaches' Posteseason Top 25

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Despite falling a win short of getting out of pool play at the NAIA Championships, the Southern Oregon University volleyball team was impressive enough in Sioux City, Iowa, that it ascended four spots to No. 13 in the postseason top-25 poll, which was released Wednesday by the national office.

The Raiders – who finished up at 24-7 overall and got a share of the Cascade Conference regular-season title for the first time since 2010 at 16-2 – were ranked 17th when they won an NAIA opening-round match at home against College of the Ozarks (Mo.) in straight sets.

That win brought them to the 24-team final site in Iowa, where they started by knocking off eighth-ranked Columbia (Mo.). The next day they lost in three sets to Texas Brownsville, which would go on to play and lose in the title match against Park (Mo.). Park wrapped up at 40-0, receiving all 19 first-place votes, and Brownsville went from fifth to second. Vanguard (Calif.), SOU's final pool-play opponent, defeated the Raiders and went from 21^st to 11^th in the poll.

Eastern Oregon landed at No. 8, College of Idaho at No. 14 and Concordia (Ore.) was the first team out of the rankings. The Cascade Conference had only put one team in the postseason top-25 poll each of the previous two seasons, and the last time it was represented by three teams in a final poll was 2005. (In 2005, however, a postseason poll had not yet been implemented. The final rankings were released prior to the Region I Tournament.)

The Raiders went 6-5 this season against postseason top-25 teams. They also went 10-0 at home, their first time since 2011 with an unscathed record inside Riehm Arena.

SOU also last appeared in the postseason rankings in 2011 – landing at No. 11 after making it out of pool play for the first time at the NAIA Championships.