7 p.m. Friday – #11 Corban at SOU – Live Stats | Live Stream
5 p.m. Saturday – Northwest Christian at SOU – Live Stats | Live Stream

ASHLAND – The senior-recognition festivities that usually accompany the final home matches of the regular season won't apply to the Southern Oregon University volleyball team this year. Instead, the senior-less Raiders will get a measuring stick of sorts to help them gauge their progress from the first half of Cascade Conference play to the second.

SOU (15-8 overall, 12-6 CCC) will also be playing for conference tournament seeding, and potentially a first-round home match, as 10th-ranked and first-place Corban (20-7, 15-3) visits Mountain Avenue Gym at 7 p.m. Friday and sixth-place Northwest Christian (15-8, 10-8) at 5 p.m. Saturday. Both teams swept SOU the first time through the CCC in the final weekend of September.

The Raiders have gone 8-2 since that then, playing their best volleyball of the season down the stretch. They can still land anywhere from the No. 3 to the No. 6 seed in the six-team CCC Championships; in Tuesday's first round, No. 3 will host No. 6 and No. 4 will host No. 5 for spots in the semifinals. Corban, meanwhile, can clinch its first regular-season title in 20 years, the top seed and final-site hosting rights with a win.

Last Week in Review: A month after the Raiders went to five sets at home with Evergreen, they had an easier time last Friday in Olympia during a 25-20, 25-19, 25-17 sweep that brought their winning streak to six matches – the team's longest in two years. Right-side hitter Taylor Ristvedt enjoyed one of her best nights of the year with 15 kills on 27 attacks and three blocks, and Makayla Hoyt had nine kills on 13 swings with no errors as SOU hit .346 collectively. A night later at Northwest – against an Eagles team that is now ranked 21st and swept SOU in their first meeting – the Raiders battled back from a 2-0 sets deficit before ultimately falling by scores of 25-21, 25-22, 20-25, 21-25, 15-5. Dani Johnson's 15 kills led four Raiders in double figures, Elliott Cook assisted five blocks and Ashlyn Flynn picked up 30 digs, but they couldn't stop SOU from losing for the first time in seven tiebreaker sets this year.

Briefly:
– SOU attacked at averages of .228 or better in all six matches during its win streak. The Raiders are hitting .246 the second time through against CCC opponents compared to .196 in the first half.
– The Raiders clinched a winning overall record last week for the 28th time in 30 seasons.
– As SOU's leader in kills, sophomore Taylor Ristvedt is just outside the CCC's top-10 and has dramatically upped her production over her freshman season. She's up to 2.7 kills per set on a .273 average; last year, she averaged 2.1 on a .171 average.
– Freshman middles Makayla Hoyt and Elliott Cook are the only underclassmen who rank top-10 in conference-only attacking average. Hoyt has the No. 2 spot at .346 – she's also ninth in blocks at 1.03 per set – and Cook is 10th at .287.
– Ashlyn Flynn, the conference's leader in digs per set at 5.44 per set, has moved to No. 4 on SOU's all-time digs list with 1,296. She needs 67 more to surpass SOU head coach Josh Rohlfing's sister, Debbie, for the No. 3 spot.

About Corban:
– After an up-and-down start to the season, the Warriors enter the weekend winners of 10 of their last 11 – most recently defeating Eastern Oregon in five sets and College of Idaho in four last weekend in Salem.
– They top the CCC in attacking (.267), rank third in opponents' attacking (.155) and fourth in blocks (2.5/set). Senior All-American outside hitter Amber Parker (3.8 kills, .256) is their most dangerous weapon, while senior All-American Alaina Gentili (2.7 kills, .327, 0.9 blocks) controls the middle.
– SOU leads the all-time series, 53-10, but has lost the last three matchups.

About Northwest Christian:
– The Beacons have clinched a spot in the CCC Tournament for the first time since 2013 and are still holding out hope for the No. 5 seed, needing two wins and two SOU losses. After a six-match win streak, they've lost four in a row – though the last three were against the top teams in the standings.
– In CCC play, they rank seventh with a .180 attacking average and fourth with a .161 average against. Their top hitters are Kasey Campbell (2.8 kills, .164) and Claire Salness (2.5, .119), but the difference in their first meeting with the Raiders was SOU's .051 attack, which was partly the product of nine NCU blocks.
– SOU leads the series, 20-3, though the Beacons have won two of the last three matchups.