ASHLAND – By piecing together nine wins in 10 matches, Southern Oregon University's volleyball team has earned the right to call this weekend its most important of the season.

Given their histories, the other parties involved shouldn't be a big surprise, either. The Raiders (14-7 overall, 11-3 Cascade Conference) will welcome first-place Eastern Oregon (23-3, 13-1) to Bob Riehm Arena on Friday and second-place College of Idaho on Saturday in a showcase of the league's top talent. Both matches start at 7 p.m. and are SOU's last at home of the regular season.

When SOU went on the road to see the same teams a month ago, it wound up playing its only five-set matches of the season. The Coyotes went down, their 73-match conference win streak at home falling with them; and the 10^th-ranked Mountaineers overcame SOU's 2-1 set advantage to win.

The Raiders haven't lost since, claiming 21 of 22 sets during their current run. This, along with next Friday's match at fourth-place Concordia, is their last chance to make a push toward the top of the standings.

"I think this is one of those weekends when you don't have to talk about much to get people ready to play," SOU head coach Josh Rohlfing said. "We were ready to play them on Monday afternoon, and that's a tribute to how good these teams are coming in."

The Mountaineers and Raiders tied for second place in 2012 and have gone to five sets in five of their last six meetings. The Raiders have won six of their last 11 matches against C o I, but the Coyotes, who have won or shared each of the last seven CCC titles, are riding an eight-match CCC winning streak since their loss against SOU.

Eastern is closing in on its first ever regular season conference title, but the Raiders would like nothing more than to get in its way. The Mountaineers feature three of the top eight hitters in the league in kills per set: Casey Loper (3.82), Stefani Sorensen (3.32) and Taylor Stewart (2.96).

"That's a team that plays with a load of confidence and doesn't give up anything," Rohlfing said. "They have these great hitters, but what you're really battling against is an incredible intensity on defense that's really hard to match at times."

They'll have their hands full with the Raiders, who after Saturday took over the league lead in team hitting average (.247) despite missing the league's most efficient hitter, middle Emma Gasman (Clovis, Calif./Buchanan).

The only team ahead of Eastern in opponent hitting average, though, is College of Idaho, which is limiting foes to a .103 mark. Coyote middle Liz Myers, a 6-foot senior, tops the CCC at 1.33 blocks per set and sophomore Kylie Porter is sixth at 1.04. Janel Porter, their senior libero, is first with 6.1 digs per set.

"Neither of these teams is going to give you points; you have to earn everything," Rohlfing said. "If there's a difference, it's that (C of I) is just a bigger blocking team."

Myers also paces the Yotes with 3.24 kills per set.

SOU hitters Mona Goudarzian (Albany, Ore./West Albany) and Paulla Pinheiro (Fortaleza, Brazil/Colegio Farias Brito) recently moved up the league rankings in that category – Goudarzian (3.52) to third and Pinheiro (3.02) to seventh. Pinheiro had 33 kills in seven sets last week and she's been in doubles digits in eight of nine contests since the first C of I matchup.

Setter Lauren McGowne (Coos Bay, Ore./Marshfield) also overtook Northwest Christian's Cori Wallace for the league lead in assists per set at 11.1, and middle Nikki Keller (Carson City, Nev./Carson)'s .401 hitting average is second only to Gasman's .413.

As Rohlfing pointed out, there isn't a phase of the game that the Raiders haven't improved upon since they last saw these teams.

"I know that trip gave us a lot of confidence," he said. "Up to that point we were up and down a little bit. That gave us some resolve that we could come back and compete for a top spot in the conference."