NAIA CHAMPIONSHIPS – OPENING ROUND
Saturday, 12 p.m. – College of the Ozarks Bobcats (16-14) at SOU Raiders (22-5)
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Complete opening-round pairings

Rankings: SOU was No. 17 in the final NAIA poll, a four-spot drop after last Friday's Cascade Conference tournament semifinal loss to No. 24 Concordia, and the Raiders peaked at No. 11 despite starting the year unranked. The Bobcats received votes in the season's first two polls but have been unranked since the November 2011.

How they got here: The Raiders went 16-2 to share a regular-season Cascade Collegiate Conference title, their first since 2010. But because the CCC's automatic bid went to the tournament champion (College of Idaho), SOU took the seventh of nine at-large bids based on its ranking. The Bobcats won the Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference regular-season title with a 7-1 record and then earned the MCAC's automatic bid by defeating Bellevue and Oklahoma Wesleyan in the conference tournament.

Series: First meeting.

NAIA Championship history: With seven appearances in the NAIA Championships prior to this one, SOU has been in it more often than 27 of the other 35 teams in the field. The Raiders last advanced in 2011 – receiving a first-round bye to the 24-team final site – and got out of pool play and into the final 12 for the first time. The Raiders are 1-1 in opening-round matches, losing at home in five sets to Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) in 2009 and sweeping Holy Names (Calif.) at home in 2010.

College of the Ozarks is 1-3 in the tournament all-time, most recently losing a 2009 opening-round match at Saint Ambrose (Iowa) in five sets.

Coaches: Josh Rohlfing, in his eighth season at SOU, has a 175-57 record with the Raiders and is responsible for delivering four regular-season and two conference tournament titles. This is the fifth time he's led SOU to NAIA postseason play.

Stacy Watkins is in her first year as head coach of the Bobcats after previously serving as an assistant. Watkins is an Ozarks alum and former All-American who was a senior on the 2009 tournament team. She inherited a team that went 23-15 in 2013 but lost five seniors.

Playoff picture: Twelve teams already have spots reserved at the final site, the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa – the top 11 in the rankings plus championship host Briar Cliff (Iowa). The other 12 making the trip will be decided on campus sites in Saturday's opening round. Once there, every team is guaranteed three matches Dec. 2-4 in pool play. Twelve teams will make it out of the six pools and engage in bracket play Dec. 5-6.

Let's get familiar: A late-November trip from Point Lookout, Missouri, to Riehm Arena in Ashland was likely unthinkable for the Bobcats back when they were a reeling 6-12 team and losers of four straight one month into the season. Their challenge now is to make the trip worthwhile.

That hasn't been an easy task against the Raiders, who are 9-0 at home and won 12 of 13 to end the regular season. They enter the match touting the No. 2-rated block-per-game average in the NAIA (2.8) and led the CCC in opponents' hitting average (.133) with their best mark since 2010. Raider opponents have hit below .200 in 24 of 27 matches.

The youthful Bobcats – they of five freshmen and four sophomores on their roster – hit .183 and held opponents to a .173 clip. They come in winners of 10 of their last 12, needing five sets in just two of those triumphs.

SOU had won five consecutive five-set matches before losing a 2-0 lead to Concordia in the CCC semifinals. The Raiders are 3-2 against ranked foes this season.

"We're doing a nice job of mentally preparing ourselves and stepping up a little each practice this week," Rohlfing said. "I'm really excited to see what we do with the extra excitement and adrenaline. For how dynamic we are, this team could be extraordinary given just a little extra energy. I know what it did for us in the first matches of the year against some of the best teams in the NAIA and I'm hoping it does the same now."

… And now let's take it outside: SOU's senior outside hitters, Motade Atanda (San Jose, Calif./Presentation) and Paulla Pinheiro (Fortaleza, Brazil/Colegio Farias Brito), shouldered the offensive load this season and both made it onto the CCC all-star team as a result. Atanda led the conference in kills at 4.3 per set, ranking 16^th in the NAIA, while Pinheiro was the only CCC player to rank top-15 in kills (3.3, 7^th), aces (0.4, 2^nd) and digs (3.0, 11^th) while repeating on the all-conference squad. Before them, no two SOU players had gone over 300 kill in the same season since 2007.

Brookelynn Cole (Portland, Ore./Central Catholic) ranks fifth in SOU single-season lore with 538 digs (5.2/set) and was SOU's third All-CCC performer. Setter Lauren McGowne (Coos Bay, Ore./Marshfield) received honorable mention with 11 assists per set in CCC play. Emma Gasman (Clovis, Calif./Buchanan) was fourth in hitting average (.303), sixth in blocks (1.0), 11^th in aces (0.3) and 13^th in kills (2.6) in conference matches.

About our new pals: A majority of the Bobcats' swings will come from three players – middle Jamie Reaves (3.1 kills/set, .307), outside hitter Jennifer Wuerffel (2.3, .138) and outside hitter Chloe Shepherd (2.2, .125) – out of their 5-2 set (one setter running out of the front row, one in the back). Reaves also averages 0.9 blocks, while Logan Allen, another middle, hits .264.

"They're very good in the middle, and Reaves has had a tremendous year," Rohlfing said. "I'm impressed with her ability to move laterally, offensively and defensively. She'll be a handful."

The Bobcats lost their first five road matches but were victorious in their last three. They're 1-2 against current top-25 teams with a four-set win over No. 11 Grand View (Iowa) in the second match of the season.

"Their progress has been great; they've gotten a lot more aggressive as the season's gone on," Rohlfing said. "It'll be a challenge to match their intensity."