The 12th ranked Southern Oregon University volleyball team heads south this weekend for four contests at the Concordia University of Irvine's Crowne Plaza Labor Day Festival.

The 24-team tourney will pit the Raiders (1-2) against four teams hailing from the NAIA's Golden State Athletic Conference - three of which appear in the Preseason Top 25 poll - in a span of 24 hours. It will serve as the final tune-up for the Raiders before heading home to tangle with Cascade Conference favorite College of Idaho Sept. 5 in their Conference opener for both squads.

After downing Simpson University and dropping matches on consecutive days to NAIA No. 1 ranked Fresno Pacific at last weekend's Raider Classic, the competition gets no easier for Southern. The Raiders will open up with host and third-ranked Concordia (Calif.), last year's runner-up to National Champion Fresno Pacific, at 1 p.m. Friday before a 7 p.m. match against No. 21 Vanguard.

Concordia won each of their three matches this weekend including a four-set defeat of College of Idaho

“Concordia's big, quick and skilled, and they'll give us all we can handle,” said SOU head coach Josh Rohlfing. “And playing Vanguard gives us an opportunity to play a full match on somebody else's home court against a very good team, so we're excited to have that opportunity.”

The Raiders will turn around to play a 9 a.m. match on Saturday against Hope International and wrap up the tourney at 1 p.m. against Biola University, which boasts a No. 4 ranking after posting 32 wins in 2007.

SOU will be without a pair of outside hitters, sophomore Leanne Stennet (Encinitas, Calif./San Dieguito) and freshman Kalista Harrison, for the duration of the tourney. Harrison notched 10 kills over the weekend but was injured during Monday's practice and will be shelved for at least a month. Freshman defensive specialist Lindsey Burdick will also be unavailable due to injury.

On the bright side, the Raiders will have outside hitters Sarah Holgen (Honolulu, Hawaii/Ashland) and Samantha Yutzie.

Holgen paced the Raiders with 22 kills last weekend and Yutzie, a starter on last year's squad, added 13 of her own. Returning all-Americans Lindsey Stone (Ashland, Ore./Ashland) and Mia Wortell also had impressive opening showings, as Stone tallied 63 assists in seven sets and Wortell had 17 kills to go along with 10 blocks.

“I feel good about where we are as a group,” said Rohlfing. “I thought we showed more in the matches than we had in practice, and our intensity and ball control was pretty impressive. This is a big weekend for us though.”