The youthful and hardworking Southern Oregon (5-6) volleyball team will travel to Portland to take on Warner Pacific and Cascade Collegiate Conference favorite’s Concordia of Oregon to build off of the conference momentum they picked up from the sweep of Oregon Tech Tuesday night.

The Raiders will first face Warner Pacific (3-2) on Friday.  The Knights are similar in style to the Raiders in that they scrape for every point.  Every match they are in, it is close and one point in either direction could’ve resulted in a lost or won set and match.  This game could be just like the one the Raiders found themselves in with their rival Owls a few nights ago.

Warner Pacific find themselves starting strong, but have a hard time finishing as they find themselves struggling in the third and fourth sets against teams. 

The Raiders are in the same boat as well.  The first three sets are the deciding factors for them in terms of set wins and for momentum swings for the day.  Of their 18 sets won, 15 have been within the first three sets with two sets won in the fourth and one in the fifth set.

On Saturday, the Raiders will be faced with a tough challenge of taking on Concordia of Oregon, whom have been predicted to finish in the top three in the conference come conference and national tournament play time.

But the Cavaliers are having the early season pains as they find themselves breaking even at 4-4 heading into this weekend to open up their first home series of the season.

For the Cavaliers, they’re matches have been all over the board early on in the season, but have pulled it together to squeak out three straight wins in a rough fashion.  They have been pushed to four sets three times and never once ventured to five at this point this season.

Concordia holds the statistical advantage over the Raiders across the board; an 11.3 to 10.8 kill ratio, 10.5 to 10.3 assist ratios, 1.1 to 1.5 errors made ratio, and 15.5 to 13.2 digs ratio.  But the Raiders hold a slight 2.1 to 1.8 advantage in blocks.

The keys to beat Concordia for Southern Oregon is to limit errors made, don’t fall behind early and to push Concordia to four or five.  Concordia hasn’t been in a dragged out dog fight that went to four or five as often as the Raiders have been in a few times in their first 11 games of the season.

Team Statistics a Comparison:

Warner Pacific                   Concordia(OR)                  Southern Oregon

Kills                        13.4                                        11.3                                                                                10.8

Assists                  11.9                                        10.5                                                                                10.3

Errors                    1.4                                          1.1                                                                                   1.5

Digs                        12.9                                        15.5                                                                                 13.2

Blocks                   0.8                                          1.8                                                                                     2.1

Records:              3-2        4-4                                          5-6