No. 15 RAIDER WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
1 p.m. Friday – at Montana Tech | Stream | Live Stats
6 p.m. Saturday – vs. Montana Western | Stream | Live Stats
(All times Pacific / Peggy Sarsfield Basketball Weekend)

ASHLAND – Southern Oregon has won 85% of its games, captured five combined Cascade Conference regular season and tournament championships, made noise in the NAIA National Tournament every season and put together one of college basketball's longest winning streaks of the decade under head coach Carlotta Kloppenburg-Pruitt.

In other words, the bar is set imposingly high in 2025-26 for a bunch of players who have yet to step foot on the court for the Raiders.

Kloppenburg-Pruitt, entering her fifth season after being named the WBCA's NAIA Coach of the Year in 2024-25, is not naïve to the fact that expectations need to be recalibrated for her youngest and most inexperienced roster to date. The Raiders lost seven seniors who accounted for nearly 70% of the minutes played on a team that won 34 straight games. They have a strong core intact with senior all-stars Eliza DiGiulio and Bridgette McIntyre, but getting back to a championship level of play, they know, will require some patience.

"It's really a process-driven year for this team," Kloppenburg-Pruitt said. "There's going to be a lot of growth from start to finish, which will be fun to see. It's just a much different spot than we were in a year ago."

At least one thing remains unchanged: defense will be SOU's calling card again. The Raiders ranked top-seven nationally in defensive efficiency three times in Kloppenburg-Pruitt's first four seasons, and she tailored a 10-person recruiting class, which includes six freshmen, around that identity.

"Defense is what we're going to live off of," she said, "especially right now. We know we're going to have to get a lot of stops while we get people up to speed offensively, but we brought in the size and speed to do that."

PRESEASON POLLS
The Raiders were No. 15 in last week's NAIA preseason coaches' poll, keeping alive a Top 25 streak that dates back to November of 2023. The Cascade Conference was also represented by No. 7 Lewis-Clark State (Idaho), No. 14 Oregon Tech, and College of Idaho in the "receiving votes" section. SOU was picked third behind LC State and OIT in the conference preseason poll, but the title race is considered wide open as indicated by the fact that all four aforementioned teams received multiple first-place votes.

LAST SEASON
At 34-1 overall and 22-0 in the Cascade Conference, the Raiders broke the program's single-season wins record, became the first CCC women's basketball team ever to finish a regular season undefeated, and landed at No. 2 in the final NAIA Top 25. They repeated as conference regular season and tournament champions, and – for the first time since the NAIA's two divisions merged in 2020 – they advanced to the final site of the national tournament by winning first- and second-round games in Ashland. There, the run continued with a Round of 16 win over Xavier (La.) in which they overcame a 14-point deficit. They led their NAIA quarterfinal matchup against top-seeded Bethel (Tenn.) by 14 points in the second half before their All-American forward, Morgan Baird, exited with a tournament-ending injury. Bethel went on to hand them their first and only loss, 74-70.

FIRST UP
The Raiders are in Butte, Mont., to open at the Peggy Sarsfield Basketball Weekend, facing host Montana Tech on Friday and Montana Western on Saturday. Montana Tech is receiving Top 25 votes after advancing to the NAIA Tournament last season, while UMW was picked to finish 11th in the Frontier Conference. SOU plays its first home games Nov. 6-7 against The Master's (Calif.) and Simpson (Calif.), tipping off at 6:30 p.m. both nights.

BACKCOURT
The Raiders have several unknowns at the guard spots; All-CCC senior shooting guard Bridgette McIntyre is not among them. McIntyre, one of the NAIA's top shooters, will be the focus of every opposing defense after leading the conference in both 3-point percentage (44.1) and makes (90) with comical range. She posted 10.2 points on just 7.5 attempts per outing in her first season as a Raider, a volume expected to jump considerably with added dimensions to her game. She returns along with junior point guard Keeley Wright, who will enter the starting lineup after backing up All-American Meghan McIntyre for the last two seasons. Wright doubled her field-goal percentage to an even 50 as a sophomore, committed only 46 turnovers, and more importantly continued to blossom into one of the best on-ball defenders in the league.

Behind Wright, junior Kai'Lani Aoki will take on ballhandling duties after redshirting last season, having led her junior-college conference in assists at Skyline C.C. (Calif.). Freshman Sage Winslow factors heavily into the Raiders' point guard plans and will work in off the ball following a standout prep career at Crater High, where she broke school records for points and steals as an all-state player.

Along with McIntyre on the wing, the Raiders' rotation will include returning players Taylee Clements, Shakia Teague-Perry, Ali Stevens and Jenika Zurita, junior transfer Kyla Albee, and freshmen Millie Day and Reyce Mogel. Clements, a redshirt-freshman, had earned a shot at a starting job before sustaining an injury that will keep her out early in the season, while Teague-Perry and Stevens have earned larger roles after appearing sparingly the last two seasons. Zurita saw the floor in 20 games last year – her first at SOU – and should boost the Raiders' spacing with her shooting ability. Albee came to the team from College of the Redwoods (Calif.), where she averaged 12.6 points last season, and Day came from England with a 5-foot-11 frame that will make her useful in a number of roles going forward. Mogel starred at Clackamas High, where she was an all-conference player for a perennial contender.

"We have quite a few guards in the mix that will allow us to play big or go small and quick," Kloppenburg-Pruitt said. "They're all going to get opportunities to show they're ready."

FRONTCOURT
Eliza DiGiulio, the 2024-25 CCC Sixth Woman of the Year, is a bit player no more. The 5-11 senior lefty needed only 18 minutes per game to post 8.7 points and 2.7 rebounds on 50% shooting from the field, 35% from 3 and 83% at the line, scoring in double figures 14 times off the bench. She'll be depended upon as a go-to scorer now while playing alongside two of Kloppenburg-Pruitt's more ready-made recruits, sophomores Alex Bullock and Gracie Arnold.

Bullock, a 5-11 forward, spent the last two seasons at perennial Frontier power Carroll (Mont.) and appeared in all 31 games last year. She gives the Raiders added athleticism and shooting inside, while Arnold provides more size at 6-1 after spending two years at Western Oregon. Another newcomer, Lydia Traore, appears ahead of schedule as a true freshman. The 6-2 Crater grad averaged a double-double as a senior, and her length could change the dynamics of SOU's defense sooner than later.

"It's a good mix of posts that gives us a lot of different things," Kloppenburg-Pruitt said. "We can throw it in and get a basket, Alex and Eliza can step out and shoot it, Gracie is really skilled inside and Lydia causes a lot of issues on both ends of the floor."