No. 21 RAIDER VOLLEYBALL (20-8, 12-6)
6 p.m. Friday – vs. No. 6 Corban (21-6, 14-4) | Live Stats
4 p.m. Saturday – vs. No. 21 Bushnell (17-8, 12-6) | Live Stats
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ASHLAND – The final weekend of the Cascade Conference volleyball regular season pits No. 21-ranked Southern Oregon against two more Top 25 teams at Lithia Motors Pavilion with the battle for playoff positioning far from over.

The Raiders (20-8 overall, 12-6 CCC) have gone 6-2 in the second half to put themselves in a three-way tie for fourth place. They'll face third-place and No. 6-ranked Corban (21-6, 14-4) at 6 p.m. Friday, then host a fellow fourth-place team, No. 25 Bushnell (17-8, 12-6), on Senior Day at 4 p.m. Saturday. The eight-team CCC Tournament field is already set, but a top-four seed would enable the Raiders to skip Tuesday's first round and go straight to the six-team final site next weekend.

IN THE RANKINGS: The Raiders moved up three spots to No. 21 in Wednesday's new NAIA Top 25 National Selection Committee poll after going 3-1 over the last two weeks, a ratings period that included their home sweep of No. 5 College of Idaho. The top three in the CCC all maintained their positions – Eastern Oregon at No. 2, C of I at No. 5 and Corban at No. 6. Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) dropped out for the first time while Bushnell jumped in at No. 25 after defeating LCSC last weekend.

SOU was also No. 23 in the NAIA RPI and No. 6 in the West Region Area Ratings Committee poll, directly in front of LCSC and Bushnell.

PLAYOFF PICTURE: If the 48-team NAIA National Tournament field were selected today, the Raiders would be solidly in as an at-large team based on their current rankings and a resume that includes wins over two current top-10 teams. That is unlikely to change even with a bad weekend and/or an early CCC Tournament exit, but stranger things have happened (see: 2025, when seven CCC teams got in but sixth-place SOU was not one of them despite beating three Top 25 teams over the final three weeks). The field will be revealed on Nov. 16, right after the final Top 25 is released.

The first round of the CCC Tournament is set for Tuesday, when the No. 5 seed will host the No. 8 seed and the No. 6 seed will host the No. 7 seed. Two wins this weekend would likely send SOU straight to the final site, which will be hosted by the regular-season champion: either Eastern Oregon or College of Idaho, who are currently tied for first place with the tiebreaker in C of I's favor.

BRIEFLY:

• The Raiders have hit the 20-win mark for the 13th time in 19 full seasons under head coach Josh Rohlfing. They're attempting to reach the NAIA National Tournament for the sixth time in their last eight seasons.
• Senior setter Annie Hite continues to creep up on 2,500 career assists, needing 46 more to become the seventh Raider ever to reach the milestone. She ranks fifth in the CCC at 5.9 per set, and the only setters in front of her are currently six-rotation players.
• The Raiders are 16-0 when they commit five or fewer service-reception errors and 1-5 when they commit 10 or more. Sophomore libero Maelle Garon has the top reception percentage in CCC play (95.7) among those with at least 200 chances. She is also fifth in the CCC in digs per set (3.7).
• All-CCC right-side Friley Curtiss has been SOU's most prolific attacker in conference play with 2.8 kills per set, the seventh-highest clip in the circuit. In the month of October, Curtiss (3.2 kills/set) and freshman Briella Mathis (2.9 kills/set) have combined to attack at a .288 average on the pins.
• In conference play, Tessa Zimmermann has the third-highest attacking average (.357) in the CCC and the best among those posting at least two kills per set (2.2).
• The Raiders are 9-1 at home, including a 2-1 mark against Top 25 teams. Over the last four seasons, they're 7-7 against nationally-ranked opponents inside Lithia Motors Pavilion.
• SOU will recognize its nine seniors at the conclusion of Saturday's match. They'll have the option of returning in 2027, however, after the NAIA voted to approve five seasons of eligibility on Wednesday.

ABOUT CORBAN: After reaching the NAIA quarterfinals last season and the semis the year before that, the Warriors are in strong position to make another run with eight Top 25 wins already banked. They got one of their four tiebreaker wins against SOU on Sept. 26, when they erased a 10-7 deficit in the fifth set. They stand out with their physicality at the net, logging the fifth-most blocks per set (2.5) in the NAIA and 17 against the Raiders. They also have an All-America outside with Emma Bischoff (3.5 kills/set), who got SOU for 14 kills the first time around. Corban has won 10 of 11 regular-season matchups against the Raiders this decade.

ABOUT BUSHNELL: The Beacons are 1-5 against the top-three in the standings but 11-1 against everyone else, and they swept SOU on Sept. 25 with a 15-3 advantage in total blocks. They have two of the top-14 kills leaders in the conference with outside Amyah Semau and Taya Blankenship, who both had 12 against the Raiders, and an all-star middle in senior Soleil Sands (1.3 blocks, .385 avg.). Should they and the Raiders end up tied in the standings, the Beacons will own the tiebreaker unless SOU sweeps them. The Raiders have won eight of 11 regular-season matchups this decade.