2 p.m. Thursday – Simpson at SOU
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ASHLAND – Entering this week's debut, the belief is that the Southern Oregon women's soccer team has reached the fun part of the developmental stage.

Jenni Rosenberg, SOU's 12th-year head coach, rolled out the youngest roster of her tenure a year ago. The Raiders were less experienced than any other Cascade Conference playoff team, and it showed in their up-and-down results. On one hand they knocked off a top-10 NAIA team, turned in a winning CCC record for the ninth consecutive season and executed the biggest upset at the CCC Tournament in five years; on the other they won back-to-back games once over the final two months of the season and had to settle for seventh place in the standings.

A year of seasoning will undoubtedly benefit the Raiders, who graduated only two seniors. Some better injury luck wouldn't hurt either: Their issues on that front led to 18 different players starting at least four games, eight of whom were in their first collegiate seasons on the field.

"The biggest difference now is we don't have to start with going back to the basic phases of the game, and we don't have as many people caught up in adjusting to the speed and physicality of college soccer," Rosenberg said. "We get to think more broadly about execution, so the expectations are higher."

Stout defense has been the Raiders' signature under Rosenberg – they haven't given up more than a goal per game on average since 2017 – and that figures to be the case again with All-CCC goalkeeper Ashlynn Hernandez and third-year starter Miller Bertani leading the charge. Their return to contention will depend on if they can approve their attack even without last year's leading scorer, Malaika Quigley, who had twice as many goals as anyone else on the roster.

"We've been really focused on the attacking third and trying to be creative," Rosenberg said. "It's a very different look without (Quigley), because before we got a lot of headers from her just by getting the ball in the box. We have to work a little harder for it now. The creativity has to come from movement, being in sync and trying to break lines with a pass."

PRESEASON POLLS
Defending champion College of Idaho, which last year went 12-0 in CCC play, is the favorite to win the title again and the circuit's lone representative in the NAIA Top 25 preseason poll at No. 20. The Raiders are picked sixth in the conference, though they've outperformed that poll four of the last five seasons and finished lower than fifth in the standings just once since 2007. The teams picked second and third in the CCC, Eastern Oregon and Carroll (Mont.), are both receiving votes in the NAIA poll.

LAST SEASON
The 2023 Raiders went 9-7-4 overall, finishing their season in the semifinal round of the CCC Tournament for the fourth consecutive season. Their 3-0 start in non-conference play was highlighted by the team's biggest upset in 22 years, a 1-0 win over No. 9-ranked Embry-Riddle (Ariz.). Their 5-3-4 showing in CCC play was marred by the losses of a handful of starters to injury, and after finishing second in the standings each of the previous two seasons they fell to seventh. In the CCC Tournament, they became the first No. 7 seed to defeat a No. 2 seed since 2018, eliminating Carroll in a 1-0 decision.

POSITION BY POSITION
GOALKEEPERS: Ashlynn Hernandez enters her fifth and final season at SOU, and second as a full-time starter, with the best career goals-allowed average (0.67) in team history. Despite giving up 1.0 per game while playing every minute of last season, she earned All-CCC second-team honors after recording 20 more saves (96) than any other keeper in the conference. A .859 save percentage makes her the class of the conference at her position, and she has a new backup in Brittany Standley, who began her career at Cal State Bakersfield and played last season at Bakersfield College.

"Ashlynn looks great, the same as she's always looked," Rosenberg said. "She has the technical skills of a center-forward and we have a lot of confidence with her back there."

DEFENDERS: Miller Bertani, a third-year starter and second-year center-back, returns as the anchor of a back line that shut out eight opponents and surrendered more than one goal just twice in CCC play last season. The junior will be joined by two Raiders who contributed as true freshmen last year, Abby Fitzpatrick and Payton Puppe-Wotipka. Sage Childress, a redshirt-freshman, and Fayth Hinojosa, a junior, are also in the mix.

Two more returning starters are slotted in at wingback: senior Skyler Coleman and sophomore Kaylah Bresee (3 goals). Senior Brynn Hales, sophomore Dylan Castellano and freshman Carter O'Shea should see time there as reserves, and freshman Sierra Betzler is a candidate to break in as a holding-midfielder following a standout prep career at Rio Americano High (Calif.).

MIDFIELDERS: On the attacking side of midfield, Rosenberg has high hopes for sophomore Frida Vargas, who 2023 last year as a starter before an injury wiped out the second half of her season. Mia Ammons stepped in and provided some offensive punch with four goals – including a game-winner in the CCC Tournament – and the junior is back along with senior Cora Thorndike, who'd started every game before missing the last five with an injury of her own, and sophomore Brooklyn Hayes (2 goals). Cadence Wilson also returns after appearing in 16 games as a true freshman and filling in for Thorndike as a starter.

FORWARDS: Abby McKean (1 goal, 2 assists) and Iniana Hammond (4 goals, 3 assists) got big opportunities as freshmen last year, and the Raiders have another expected to contribute right away in Ava Johnson. Taytum Curtis was a semi-regular starter as a sophomore in 2023, and Lucia Finney has impressed in the preseason entering her junior campaign.