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--> --> Raider netters off to their third-best start in program history By Rich Rosenthal For the Tidings Looking Good, Billy Ray! Feeling Good, Lewis! Up to this point, the 2002 season couldn't get much better for the Southern Oregon University volleyball team. At 12-3 overall and 8-1 in Cascade Conference action, the 19th-ranked Raiders are off to their third-best start in program history, and all three setbacks came against NAIA top-14 teams. Southern Oregon enters a home weekend set against lower-tier conference opponents Cascade College (Friday) and Warner Pacific (Saturday) nursing a nine-match home win streak dating back to last season and a three-match overall skein since a straight-game setback at 14th-ranked and league leader Concordia on Sept. 27. The Raiders have also won 10 of their last 11 outings. "We're playing really well, and we need to maintain that high level regardless of who we play," 12th-year head coach Paul Elliott said. Including a three-game sweep of identical 30-20 scores on Sept. 6 in Portland, SOU is 10-0 all-time against last-place Cascade (4-11, 0-9), and the team is 15-3 dating back to 1981 against seventh-place Warner Pacific (4-8, 3-6). Southern Oregon, which trails Concordia by one match in the league regular-season title chase, is 38-4 at its home McNeal Pavilion venue since 1998. Kristina Matchett was again the biggest difference-maker in Southern Oregon's weekend victories, and as a result the Klamath Falls product earned Cascade Conference and NAIA Region I Player of the Week honors for a school-record eighth time in her already storied collegiate volleyball career. The reigning league MVP led the Raiders with 29 weekend kills, upping her season per-game kill clip to 4.84, which rates No. 2 in the 10-team loop. Matchett also accumulated a squad-high 20 digs in the two matches, and she moved up two spots in the conference stat leaders in the category to 3.04 per game. Matchett, who has started all 77 matches since being a freshman walk-on in 2000, holds every SOU kill record possible, and she extended her Raider career kill total to 1,338. Women's Soccer Even though the Southern Oregon University women's soccer team is just 0-5-1 over the past six outings and 2-4-1 in Cascade Conference play, playoff aspirations are still very much realistic. The sixth-place Raiders (3-7-1), mired in the school's worst soccer slump in their three-year intercollegiate history but are still in the hunt for one of four league playoff berths, face crucial conference tests this week: a Tuesday showdown with archrival Oregon Tech (4-7, 1-6) and Saturday at fifth-place Warner Pacific (5-5, 5-4). Unfortunately for SOU, they will be without its top season scorer, freshman forward Katie Emerson, who suffered a broken collarbone last Saturday in the team's 1-1 draw against Cascade College. The Raiders and Oregon Tech renew their longtime institutional rivalry Tuesday afternoon when the Owl booters make their third-annual visit to University Field. Although OIT has been outscored 16-nil in four previous soccer losses to the Ashland school, the Owls might be the favorites, at least on paper, this time around. Tech easily defeated Cascade 4-1 last Friday, and it battled Western Baptist to a 1-1 tie through 86 minutes before falling 3-1. OIT's top scorer is two-sport athlete Becky Ernstrom, who has six goals, while senior midfielder Courtney Kelley has five goals and four assists. Freshman forward Kelly Suminski ranks among the league leaders for average shots taken (4.7 per game). Cross Country The Southern Oregon University cross country program has reached the midway point in the 2002 season schedule, and although the men's and women's squads will be idle this weekend, head coach Grier Gatlin will be eagerly monitoring the NAIA Web site Friday. The fourth-year harrier guru expects the SOU men to move into the top-25 polls for the first time since September 1994 based on the team's solid weekend performance at the huge Willamette Invitational in Salem. The Raider men and women return to action on the same Bush Pasture Park course Oct. 19 in what will be an NCAA Div. III regional preview hosted by Willamette for Northwest Conference teams and a standard open meet for area NAIA and Div. II squads. The Raider men finished 18th among 40 teams at last Saturday's Bearcat Invite, and Gatlin's top-25 expectations are based on the fact SOU finished well ahead of two ranked teams: No. 24 Point Loma Nazarene (22nd in the WU race) and No. 21 Lewis-Clark State (25th). The group was an aggregate 1:50 behind the next highest-ranked NAIA squad, seventh-ranked British Columbia, which placed 12th. Junior all-star Sean Peterson was the school's top finisher for the first time this season and for the sixth time in his career after clocking a 25:48 on the 8K course, good for 56th out of 366 competitors. SOU's other male scorers were freshman Ryan Pheil (26:18, 97th), freshman Zach Worth (26:22, 105th), freshman Matt Hazard (26:45, 141st) and freshman Ryan Manies (26:47, 143rd). The Southern Oregon women placed 18th out of 35, and freshman Hadley Roe of Florence led the way for the first time in her brief collegiate career with a stellar 18:44, 38th-place effort among 319 runners on the 5K track. Senior all-star Liana Bernard, who was battling the flu, was courageous and allowed the five-runner team to receive a team score with a 20:13, 173rd-place showing, almost two minutes below her season average. Other women's placers were senior Helen Rarick (19:09, 82nd), sophomore Kierra Bernales (19:12, 88th) and junior Heidi Gelarden (20:52, 217th). Email your... 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