By Isaac Fernandez, Assistant SID

ASHLAND — In perhaps a sign of good fortune, the first snowfall of an otherwise dry winter blessed Ashland this week ahead of the No. 3 Southern Oregon beach volleyball team's highly anticipated season debut at the Corban Invitational this weekend.  

The Raiders received their highest ranking yet in their four years as a team at No. 3 in the NAIA Top 10 preseason coaches' poll behind defending national champion Ottawa (Ariz.) and Cascade Conference favorite Corban.

They started last year at No. 8 and ended it at No. 4 after advancing to the semifinal round of the NAIA Invitational and finishing with a 19-11 overall record. The Raiders return 13 players from that team, six of whom were regulars in the five-pair lineup.

"The returners have all improved throughout summer and our fall training, and we have made several key additions to our lineup," said head coach Paul Elliott, the 2023 and '24 Cascade Conference co-Coach of the Year. "We have a lot of confidence and we are excited to see how it plays out this year."

SOU heads to the Corban Beach Volleyball Courts, first playing NCAA Division II opponent Chaminade (Hawaii, 4-0 overall) on Friday and Division I opponent Sacramento State on Saturday. Both matches start at 11 a.m.

The fifth annual NAIA Invitational will be held April 23-25 in Mesa, Ariz.

SOU's first home contests are Feb. 27-28 against Simpson (Calif.) and Portland. The Simpson matchup also marks the start of the Raiders' 15-dual CCC schedule, which includes three duals against every opponent in the six-team circuit.

Beach volleyball is played in pairs, and each contest features five pairs from both teams going head-to-head: SOU's top pair will match up with the opponent's top pair, SOU's No. 2 pair will match up with the opponent's No. 2 pair, and so on. Whichever team comes out on top in the best-of-five match series earns the win. Each individual match is a best-of-three sets: The pairs play to 21 points in the first two sets and to 15 in the tiebreaker, all by rally scoring.

ABOUT THE RAIDERS: Tessa Zimmermann, a 6-foot-1 junior from Salem, returns to SOU's top pair after an impressive 2025 season. She earned American Volleyball Coaches Association All-America and All-Cascade Collegiate Conference honors, was named to the NAIA Invitational All-Tournament team, and finished with a 10-5 record in the CCC. Zimmerman's also a middle blocker on the Raider indoor team, where she totaled 153 kills and 93 total blocks this fall. She's joined by another All-CCC performer in Grace Gulbrandsen, a junior from Folsom who ended last season with an 11-4 record in the conference at the No. 2 pair.

Kira Sandoval and graduate transfer Molly Grace open up as the No. 2 pair. Sandoval finished the 2025 CCC circuit with a 10-5 record at the No. 3 pair, and Grace comes to Southern Oregon after spending four years as an All-CCC outside hitter for Oregon Tech's indoor team, racking up 1,099 kills and 733 digs in her time there.

Two outside hitters/defensive specialists from SOU's indoor team, Andressa Ribeiro Soares and Maelle Garon, make up the No. 3 pair. Last year, Riberio Soares posted a 12-3 conference record at the No. 4 pair. Garon, a freshman from Seyssins, France, was a U17 French champion in 2024 and advanced to the U18 French Cup finals in back-to-back years.

Amanda Moffat, a sophomore from Spokane who redshirted last season, is partnering with Kaitlyn Shilling at the No. 4 pair. Natalie Perez and Kendal Hadwick round out the lineup at the No. 5 pair. Perez was named to the NAIA All-America second team in 2024 at the No. 5 pair (17-0) and Hadwick finished last season 13-2 in the CCC as the fifth pair.