SOU NOTES

ASHLAND, Ore. -- Fresh off last weekend's upset of top-ranked Fresno Pacific, No. 14 Southern Oregon will travel to La Mirada, Calif., to participate in the Biola Invitational. The Raiders will play four total matches, with two each on Friday and Saturday.

First up will be a game against Vanguard at noon on Friday. After back-to-back top-15 finishes at the NAIA tournament in 2008 and 2009, the Lions fell to 14-15 overall last season. First-year head coach Eryn Leja leads the team, which opened the season 1-2 at last weekend's Cougar Classic. Vanguard split a pair of contests against Cascade Collegiate Contest teams, defeating Eastern Oregon while falling to Concordia. The Raiders and Lions have met one time, with Vanguard taking a three-set victory in 2008.

The Raiders will face California State-San Marcos Friday at 6 p.m. The 2011 season marks the first year of intercollegiate volleyball for the Cougars, and San Marcos defeated Holy Names in three sets in its first-ever match last weekend en route to a 3-2 showing at the Cougar Classic.

Saturday's first matchup for Southern Oregon will be a 10 a.m. match against Westmont. The Warriors finished the 2010 season with a 14-15 overall record, 8-12 in conference play. They will open the 2011 season at the Biola tournament. Westmont loses its top hitter from last year's squad, but returns its top setter, Candace Adema, who averaged 10.84 assists per set last season. In the lone meeting between Westmont and SOU, the Warriors swept the Raiders in 1992.

Southern Oregon's final game will be against No. 7 Lewis-Clark State. The Warriors return three first-team all-Frontier Conference performers from last season's 31-3 team that made it to the NAIA tournament quarterfinals. Lewis-Clark State returns eight total players, including senior middle blocker Nicole Graybeal, a first-team NAIA All-American and the Frontier Conference Player of the Year. All-time, the Raiders are 12-6 against LC-State, although the last two meetings have been postseason matches that went to the Warriors. In the teams' most recent matchup, Lewis-Clark State defeated SOU in five sets at the 2009 NAIA Championships.

Southern Oregon picked up a couple different conference honors this week following its season-opening win. Senior Sarah Holgen (Honolulu, Hawaii/Ashland) was named Red Lion Player of the week as a hitter, her fifth career POW honor, after tallying 16 kills and 11 digs. As a team, the Raiders earned a share of the Verizon Team of the Week award, splitting the honor with Oregon Tech after the Owls followed in SOU's footsteps by upsetting the Sunbirds 3-2 last Saturday.