No. 10 RAIDER VOLLEYBALL (2-0, 0-0 CCC)
6 p.m. Thursday – at Oregon Tech | Stream | Stats

ASHLAND – No. 10-ranked Southern Oregon is far from the only team feeling confident about its chances in the Cascade Conference following a slick nonleague run.

SOU (6-0) will clash with another, Oregon Tech (7-1), in the CCC opener for both teams 6 p.m. Thursday at Danny Miles Court. It will be the first time since 2011 that the Raiders start their conference schedule in Klamath Falls, facing an Owls team that was picked to finish eighth in the preseason poll but looks already like it has made a leap under second-year coach Alexis Garrison.

SERIES: The Raiders have an all-time record of 102-32 against OIT and swept last year's series, winning both matchups 3-1. They've won 36 of the last 40 meetings dating back to 2005, a stretch of dominance interrupted only by the Owls' season sweeps in 2021 and '22.

ABOUT THE OWLS: The Owls returned their top-four attackers, along with setter Paige Tevelde, from last year's team that went 10-12 in the CCC. The headliner is all-conference outside hitter Molly Grace (3.1 kills/set, .270 attack %), who went for 22 kills over seven sets last year against SOU. They're attacking at an impressive .242 team clip, and their defense is sturdy at the net with middles Kate Hicks (1.2 blocks/set) and Aleksen Thayer (1.4 blocks/set). Thayer is the reigning CCC Defensive Player of the Week, having posted single-match block totals of 13 and 10 during OIT's 4-0 stint last week at the Hope International Summer Slam. New to their arsenal is 6-foot-1 right-side hitter Lex Boccia, currently posting an average of 1.9 kills on .246 efficiency.

RAIDER NOTES:

• Senior outside hitter Marin Mackey had double-doubles with kills and digs in three consecutive matches last week, becoming the first Raider to do so since Corynn Kopra in 2015. The 2023 All-CCC selection currently ranks seventh in the circuit at 3.1 kills per set on a .293 average, up from last year's .230 mark.
• On a team that features two of last year's top-10 on the NAIA blocks leaderboard in middles Sadie Byrd and Linda Conceicao, right-side hitter Megan Perry is currently the top blocker. She's averaging 1.2 per set and last week totaled at least five in all three of her outings. Perry is currently the only CCC player on the conference's top-10 leaderboards in blocks, attacking average (.340) and kills per set (2.7).
• The Raiders' early .284 team attacking average ranks third in the NAIA. They've hit .211 or better in every match, while opponents have yet to top .188 against a defense whose blocks-per-set average (2.4) is just off the pace of last year's (2.7) that ranked fourth nationally.
• SOU's second win of the season pushed head coach Josh Rohlfing ahead of Joanne Widness (1969-87) to No. 2 on the program's all-time wins list. At 363-131 in his career, Rohlfing is 19 wins away from passing Paul Elliott (1991-06) – currently an assistant and SOU's head beach volleyball coach – for the team record.
• This is the fourth time the Raiders have started 6-0 during the Rohlfing era. Since he took over in 2007, they're 13-3 in conference openers.