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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us November 11, 2004 Raiders out to 'remove all doubt' By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Southern Oregon's season won't be on the line this weekend when it hosts the Cascade Conference volleyball tournament at McNeal Pavilion. Raider volleyball all-stars Jamie McCreary (6) and Nicholette Le Bel (14) reach for the block during one of Southern's final conference matches. SOU opens the Cascade Conference tournament at home on Friday. Andrew Mariman | Ashland Daily Tidings But, says head coach Paul Elliott, high seeds for the upcoming regional and national tournaments will be in jeopardy, as well as the league tourney title and � oh yeah � pride. "I think sharing the (regular season) conference crown kind of got us to say, 'Let's go out and win the tournament and remove all doubt,'" Elliott said. Elliott and company can do so starting Friday, when the 22nd-ranked Raiders will face the winner of the Concordia-Western Baptist match in the semifinals at 7 p.m. The winner of that match moves on to Saturday night's tournament championship round. Why so relaxed? Southern Oregon (20-6) finds itself in an unusually comfortable position for early November. The Raiders finished tied with Northwest atop the league standings. But, while both schools ended up with identical 15-3 league marks, the Raiders won the tie-breaker (head-to-head games won) and therefore gained hosting rights for both the league and Region I tournaments. Those hosting rights come gift wrapped with automatic tournament berths. That's not so significant for the league tournament, which six of the conference's 10 teams qualify for, but could prove crucial when it comes to the much-harder-to-qualify-for regional fracas Nov. 18-20. SOU is currently ranked No. 2 in Region 1. A great showing this weekend may give the Raiders an outside shot at overtaking Carroll College for the No. 1 regional ranking. More than likely, however, SOU will be the No. 2 seed at the regional tourney regardless of what happens Friday and Saturday. Still, a solid performance at the Cascade Conference tournament followed up by another one at regionals could give the Raiders a high rating and therefore a better draw in the NAIA National Championships, Dec. 1-4. "It matters a huge amount for seedings," Elliott said, "and we're playing for the conference tournament championship and it's on our court and there's still a bit of a sting from playing poorly last Saturday (against Albertson)." Marked women Despite settling for a tie in the final league standings, the Raiders enter the conference tournament as the clear favorite. Of their three regular season losses, two were five-game squeakers and the other - Saturday's three-game defeat at Albertson - is worthy of an asterisk, since it came after SOU had already clinched hosting rights through regionals. SOU is loaded. Four Raiders - outside hitter Kristin Ferris, setter Jamie McCreary, middle blocker Nicholette Le Bel and libero Kristen Lilly - are nominees for Cascade Conference all-star nods, which will be announced immediately following Saturday night's championship match. Ferris is a legitimate Cascade Conference Player of the Year candidate, averaging among the league leaders in per game averages for kills (fifth, 3.78), attack percentage (eighth, .277), service aces (fifth, 0.46) and digs (eighth, 3.77). The Raiders will have plenty of challengers. Besides Northwest, Albertson (14-4 Cascade), Concordia (11-7), Western Baptist (11-7) and Oregon Tech (11-7) will be shooting for the league tourney title this weekend. All are capable. "There are six teams, including ourselves, and any one of them could win this tournament," Elliott said. Albertson and Oregon Tech play each other Friday morning in the first round. Concordia and Western Baptist follow. Northwest will play the winner of the ACI-OIT match at 4 p.m., and the Raiders will face either Concordia or Western Baptist at 7 p.m.. The championship match is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday night. Elliott likes his team's chances, but says the field is one of the toughest in recent memory. "I think it's going to be as intense a conference tournament as we've had," he said. "Our conference is fighting for potentially four regional bids, so those two first-round loser-out matches are huge." SOU's first match of the tourney will be huge too, just not necessarily for the Raiders. Still, the giant 'X' on the Raiders' back seems to be enough to keep the three-time defending Region I champs interested. "I think for us, it's a compliment and I think we've worked hard for it and we deserve it and it's not surprising," Elliott said of his team's status as tourney favorite and host. "We don't walk around and talk about it. We're happy we're at home and we're happy with what we've accomplished, but we've been down this road before." DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Women's & Men's Slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc libor rate Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weightloss Products Memory Foam Mattress afsa studentloans home equity loans teleconferencing W2 Forms fasa student loans Matchmaking & Dating Scripts African Safari Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation wholesale diamonds Currancy Exchange web conferencing Online Casinos Community Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. 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