For the first time in the three-year history of the program, the Southern Oregon University beach volleyball team is headed to the NAIA Invitational. The Raiders received an at-large bid on Monday to take the eighth and final spot at the tournament in Greeneville, Tennessee.
Southern Oregon hit the 30-win mark for the 10th consecutive full season by finishing off a four-game sweep of Bushnell on Saturday, 7-0 and 14-2 at Schwab Field in Eugene. The top-ranked Raiders upped their record to 30-2 overall and 13-1 in the Cascade Conference. They play two against No. 2-ranked Oregon Tech on Wednesday before hosting Corban over the weekend.
The top-ranked SOU Raiders softball team (25-1 overall, 9-0 Cascade Conference) matched the best start in team history with Saturday’s 8-0 and 9-1 victories, finishing off both in five innings. Ari Williams, a junior right fielder, went 6-for-6 with seven RBIs, a double, a triple and an inside-the-park home run during the doubleheader.
A giant what-if clouded Southern Oregon’s historic run as the season ended in heartbreak Saturday in the NAIA Women’s Basketball Championship quarterfinals. Top-seeded Bethel (Tenn.) dinged the No. 2-seeded Raiders’ perfect record and knocked them out of the tournament by storming back for a 74-70 win at the Tyson Events Center.
The ride is over. In the NAIA Men’s Basketball Championship quarterfinal round, Southern Oregon finally ran out of gas. Defending national champ Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.), the Duer Quadrant’s top seed, stopped the No. 11-seeded Raiders 69-56 on Saturday evening at Municipal Auditorium.
SOU’s men’s basketball team took down a third consecutive conference champion and higher-seeded opponent in Friday’s NAIA Championship Round of 16, defeating No. 7-seeded Keiser (Fla.) 83-79 at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City. At 3 p.m. PDT Saturday, they’ll face defending national champion and top-seeded Freed-Hardeman in the national championship tournament quarterfinals.
The still-undefeated SOU women’s basketball team plays in the national quarterfinal round Saturday for the third time in program history — and the first time since the NAIA’s two divisions merged — after a 67-60 victory over Xavier on Thursday.
To the stunned chagrin of another upset victim, the Southern Oregon men’s basketball team is no longer just happy to be here. The No. 11-seeded Raiders have made themselves at home in the NAIA National Tournament after knocking off No. 3 seed The Master’s (Calif.), 76-71, in Saturday’s second round at the MacArthur Center.
With a 78-51 win Saturday, the No. 2-seeded Southern Oregon University Raiders women’s basketball team went to 33-0 on the year, matching the program’s single-season wins record and advancing to the final site in Sioux City, Iowa, for the first time since the NAIA’s two divisions merged and the bracket expanded to 64 teams three years ago.
For the fourth year in a row, the Southern Oregon women’s basketball team is through to the second round of the NAIA National Tournament. In Friday night’s 86-52 first-round win over UC Merced at Lithia Motors Pavilion, the Raiders made it look routine. The task gets taller, literally and figuratively, in Saturday’s 5 p.m. second-round matchup against No. 7 seed Wayland Baptist (Texas).
As of Nov. 3, Ashland Community Food Bank has a new director at the reins. Catie Mahoney will serve in the role with guidance from outgoing director Amey Broeker, who will officially retire on Dec. 31 after serving in the food bank role since 2022.
The Ashland City Council will review a proposal from a potential provider to oversee its extreme weather shelter during its regular business meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 18.
The Ashland Independent Film Festival has added a second screening showcasing Indigenous filmmakers on Sunday, Nov. 23.
Three and a half years into the war with Russia, Ashland violinist and longtime music teacher Faina Podolnaya is still finding ways to help Ukrainian refugees.
Herbert Rothschild: As the number of ads in The New Yorker has shrunk, it seems as if the wealth of its readership has concentrated, just as one might concentrate the flavor of a sauce by reducing it on the stovetop.
Local artist MaryAnn Shank will share the thoughts behind her newest novel “Sor Juana, My Beloved” at Bloomsbury Books Jan. 26. Shank is a finalist of The Isabel Allende Most Inspirational Book of the Year 2025 award, awarded by the International Latino Book Association.
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