ASHLAND – Coming off a semifinal appearance at last year's NAIA Invitational, the Southern Oregon University beach volleyball team was picked second in Friday's Cascade Conference preseason poll.

Defending CCC champion Corban, which reached last year's NAIA finals, was picked to win the conference again with five first-place votes. SOU received the other first-place vote and was followed in the poll by College of Idaho, Bushnell, Northwest (Wash.) and Simpson (Calif.).

The Raiders begin their fourth season under head coach Paul Elliott on Feb. 20 in Salem, where they'll take on Sacramento State and University of Portland. They debut at home Feb. 27 with a CCC-opening dual against Simpson.

They went 19-11 overall and finished second in the CCC at 12-3 a year ago. The Raiders return 13 players from that team, six of whom were regulars in the five-pair lineup.

Junior Tessa Zimmermann will be following up on an AVCA All-America season on SOU's No. 1 pair, and junior Grace Gulbrandsen is another All-CCC returner who went 22-8 in 2025 as part of the team's No. 2 pair.

Corban returns seven lineup regulars. The Warriors went 26-2 and were unbeaten in CCC play last year, ultimately knocking SOU out of the invitational in a 3-2 decision.

The NAIA Top 10 preseason poll will be released Jan. 21. SOU was No. 4 in last year's postseason poll.

2026 CCC Beach Volleyball Preseason Poll

Team (First-Place Votes)	Points
1. Corban University (5)	35
2. Southern Oregon University (1)	31
3. College of Idaho	24
4. Bushnell University	18
5. Northwest University	14
6. Simpson University	7