ELIMINATION BRACKET | TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
1:45 p.m. PST Friday – SOU vs. Marian (Ind.) (Round of 16)
6:15 p.m. PST Friday – National Quarterfinals
9 a.m. PST Saturday – National Semifinals
5 p.m. PST Saturday – National Championship
*Fans can watch live online by clicking here or in Ashland at Oak Tree Northwest Bar & Grill.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – The Southern Oregon University volleyball team went down for the first time in 68 days Thursday in its NAIA Championships pool-play finale, but the fifth-ranked Raiders won't have to sit on the loss for long.

Central Methodist (Mo.) ended SOU's winning streak at 16 matches with a 17-25, 25-15, 25-21, 25-27, 15-12 victory at the Tyson Events Center, stealing the tiebreaker set with five unanswered points. Outside hitter Jane Kickham's season-high 19 kills and right-side hitter Jordan Wolfe's 16 kills pushed the 12th-ranked Eagles – champions of the Heart of America Conference – across the finish line.

Both SOU (31-4) and CMU (33-3) had already reserved spots in the 16-team elimination bracket by winning their first two Pool E matches. In the Round of 16, the Raiders will play Friday at 1:45 p.m. Pacific Time against 11th-ranked Marian (Ind.) (34-2), which went 3-0 in its pool.

Should the Raiders advance to the quarterfinals, they'd play again at 6:15 p.m. Friday. On Saturday, the semifinals are scheduled for 9 a.m. and the national championship match for 5 p.m.

A day after overcoming a 2-1 sets deficit against Bellevue (Neb.), the Raiders appeared to be on the same trajectory against the Eagles. They used Makayla Hoyt's kill to fight off match point at 24-23 in the fourth set and closed it out with Kylie Ristvedt's smash and Emma Ryan's service ace.

After surrendering the first five points in the fifth, they chipped away and used a 6-1 run to tie it at 7-all on back-to-back Maddie Pernich kills. Later, consecutive CMU attacking errors gave them a 12-10 edge before the Eagles claimed five straight, including four on kills, to end it. Kickham accounted for two of the last three points with her final kills.

Taylor Ristvedt led the Raiders with 18 kills but was held below her season attacking average at .259, taking 58 cuts. Elliott Cook had 12 kills and five blocks, Hoyt had 10 kills and five blocks (four solo), and Pernich recorded three of her 10 kills in the tiebreaker.

Emma Ryan did all she could to slow down the Eagles' attack with 37 digs – the highest total for a Raider since 2012. Kadyn Jones also totaled a career-high with 21 digs.

UP NEXT: The Raiders are in the elimination bracket for the second year in a row and third time in history, getting their first-ever look at Marian. The Knights will bring a 34-2 record into the matchup, having won 23 of their last 24. They finished as regular-season co-champions at 17-1 in the Crossroads League with third-ranked Indiana Wesleyan, which needed five sets to defeat them in the Crossroads Tournament championship. In Pool Play, they swept No. 21 Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) and Ottawa (Kan.) before finishing with a five-set upset of No. 6 Viterbo (Wis.). They rank 11^th nationally in attacking average (.242) with several dangerous options: 6-foot hitter Skyler Van Note (3.9 kills, .265), 6-foot hitter Sarah Spangler (2.8 kills, .293), 5-10 hitter Brooke Hustedde (2.2 kills, .175) and 5-10 middle Jai-Lynn Norwood (2.2 kills, .267). Van Note was voted the Crossroads Player of the Year.