Complete Men's Top 25
Complete Women's Top 25

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Earning respect nationally has in recent history been an uphill battle for Cascade Conference women's basketball teams, but Southern Oregon University has commanded enough attention to finally break into the top-10 of Tuesday's latest NAIA Div. II coaches' poll.

Up four spots thanks to a slew of upset victims in front of them, the Raiders are up to No. 8 in the rankings, which don't feature any other CCC teams (though Warner Pacific and Oregon Tech both received votes).

At 15-0 overall and 8-0 in the Cascade Conference, SOU is the only remaining undefeated team in the poll. Formerly-top-ranked Saint Xavier (Ill.) was knocked off by St. Francis (Ill.) last week, ruining its perfect record and making way for defending champion Morningside (Iowa) to take over the No. 1 spot.

The Raiders hadn't been ranked this high at this point in a season since the 1998-99 campaign.

On the men's side, SOU was pulled down just one spot to No. 12 after splitting two games last week. The Raiders are 14-4 overall and 7-1 in the Cascade Conference, tied for first place with 17th-ranked Northwest Christian.

Both SOU squads face a pivotal weekend ahead, Friday at College of Idaho and Saturday at Eastern Oregon. The Raider men haven't swept the road trip since the 2005-06 season and start with a Coyotes team that got back into the poll at No. 25 this week and is tied for third place with Warner Pacific at 6-2 in the CCC.

The Raider women have had issues of their own on the long trek. Before defeating College of Idaho last season, they hadn't won a conference game on either home floor since January of 2009, and second-place Eastern Oregon (11-6, 7-1) has claimed the last three CCC regular-season titles.

This weekend's games mark the end of the first half of conference play.