ASHLAND – As expected, No. 7-ranked Southern Oregon will head to Washington next week in search of its first Cascade Conference championship in five years.

The Raiders made sure of that by hammering Warner Pacific in a 25-12, 25-14, 25-21 sweep on Saturday afternoon at Lithia Motors Pavilion. At 23-3 overall and 17-3 in the CCC, they remain tied with No. 3 Eastern Oregon and No. 8 Corban for first place with two regular-season matches left to play.

Against the last-place Knights (2-20, 2-18), they got a nine-kill, 17-dig performance from Mylena Testoni and 23 assists from Alex Ching-Sam to lead a .305 attack. Marin Mackey and Megan Perry contributed nine kills apiece. Sadie Byrd totaled five kills on 10 swings and four assisted blocks, and Kayla Neidigh came up with nine digs and a pair of service aces.

Tessa Zimmermann, who along with Ching-Sam made a spot-appearance in the rotation, pitched in seven kills and three blocks.
 
The Raiders have swept nine of their last 10 matchups with the Knights, who were led by Elizabeth Reid's seven kills.

SOU plays next Friday at 10th-place Evergreen (Wash.) and Saturday at ninth-place Northwest (Wash.). Northwest nearly pulled off an upset Saturday at Corban, falling 19-17 in a tiebreaker after blowing a 2-0 sets lead.

If SOU, EOU and Corban remain tied through next weekend, EOU will get the No. 1 seed and have hosting rights for the CCC Tournament. In the event of any two-way ties, SOU owns a head-to-head tiebreaker over EOU but not over Corban.