The Southern Oregon women's soccer team, off to the best start in program history, opens Cascade Conference play this week with a pair of home matches.

The Raiders (6-2-1) host Northwest Christian Friday(2-4-1) at 2 p.m. and Corban (8-1) Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Southern Oregon's two losses have come to teams in the NAIA Top 25 (Concordia-Irvine and Carroll College).

Southern Oregon enters conference play red-hot, outscoring their opponents 9-0 in the last two matches.

The Raiders scored just 19 goals in 2009 and already have 17 goals on the season, which ranks third in conference play.

Individually, Denise Powell (Grants Pass, Ore./Hidden Valley) ranks fifth in the conference in shots with 24 on the season. Stephanie Carr (Upland, Calif./Upland) ranks fourth in goals with four and eighth in points with nine. Alexis Mahoney (San Clemente, Calif./San Clemente) leads the conference in assists with four.

Defensively, the Raiders have posted five shutouts in eight matches and are 4-0-1 in overtime matches this year. Junior goalkeeper Jessica Kuehlwein (Oregon City, Ore./Oregon City) ranks third in both save percentage (.825) and saves (33).

Northwest Christian is coming off a 2-0 victory over Southwestern (Ariz.), while Corban - much like SOU - has burst out of the gate and is riding a conference-best three match win streak.