ASHLAND – Josh Rohlfing believes that the Northwest Christian volleyball team may not have had Southern Oregon's full attention the first time around.

If that was the case, the Beacons undoubtedly earned it. And their Sept. 7 sweep of the Raiders during the first weekend of Cascade Conference play makes Friday's 7 p.m. rematch at Bob Riehm Arena all the more pivotal.

The Raiders (10-7 overall, 7-3 CCC), winners of five of their last six, lead the Beacons (14-6, 7-4) by ½ game in fourth place and are 1 ½ back of Concodia and College of Idaho, which are tied for second. At 7 p.m. on Saturday they'll wrap up a five-match home set with an attempt to complete the season sweep of Corban (5-16, 2-9).

SOU will wear pink uniforms Friday in support of Breast Cancer Awareness. A portion of the night's gate will be donated to Asante Ashland Community Hospital Foundation's Women's Imaging and Mammogram Fund.

"I think, as the season's progressed, we've gained an understanding of the respect we need to have for our opponents," said Rohlfing, SOU's seventh-year head coach. "We were young and inexperienced in some regards, and that was one of them – not preparing for each team like we should. So we really have to anticipate (NCU's) level this time because they gave us a lot of problems."

Most of those problems stemmed from NCU's size advantage. Chandler Gabrio and Chelsea McGowan stand at 6-foot-2 and 6-0 in the middle, and Janel Fetters and Maren Mansfield are 6-0 and 5-10 on the outside. All four are averaging better than two kills per set.

In sets one and three of SOU's loss in Eugene – which was its first ever in 14 matches between the schools – the Raiders' hitters were stymied, attacking at averages of .083 and .074. The Raiders' average now is up to .245, which is second in the conference.

"They're big, they're physical and they're going to be aggressive," Rohlfing said of the Beacons. "We've gotta be able to match their intensity and get our tempo going."

Cori Wallace, NCU's senior setter, has an eyelash of an advantage in assists per set (10.79) over SOU freshman Lauren McGowne (Coos Bay, Ore./Marshfield) (10.75) to rank second in the CCC. McGowne had 52 assists in SOU's only match last week, a four-set win against Oregon Tech.

Also in that win, junior hitter Paulla Pinheiro (Fortaleza, Brazil/Colegio Farias Brito) hit doubles digits in kills (11) for the fifth straight match and digs (15) for the sixth time in seven matches. Freshman hitter Emma Gasman (Clovis, Calif./Buchanan)'s league-best attacking average actually dropped to .412 with her 17-kill night on 29 swings, but she still has the slightest of edges over Eastern Oregon's Casey Loper (.411).

Corban has enjoyed some similarly stellar production from its young core. Almost half of the Warrior roster is made up of freshmen, but senior Olivia Shropshire and junior Claire Bailey top the team with marks of 3.03 and 2.47 kills per set, respectively.

The Raiders have won 21 straight against Corban, but Rohlfing expects to see a different team than the one they handled in early September.

"They're really, really young, so they have those nights where they can be as good as anyone and they also have nights when they struggle," he said. "That's to be expected, but a team like that only improves as the season progresses."