ASHLAND — Above all else, the Southern Oregon men’s soccer team’s spot in the NAIA Top 25 and status as the Cascade Conference title favorite reflects the respect commanded by its remarkable consistency under head coach Davie Carmichael.

The Raiders, as is natural for a team with six starters and nearly 100 career goals gone with its latest graduating class, have more question marks than usual on paper entering their 2024 campaign. But a winning percentage of .840 over their last six full seasons of conference play means the target stays on their backs.

They debut this weekend in Prescott, Ariz., playing Benedictine Mesa (Ariz.) on Friday and Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) on Saturday, in need of some new primary creators to step up for the first time in five years.

In addition to 16 returners with opportunities to step up, Carmichael compiled a 14-person recruiting class (which includes seven international players) to fill the gaps around the reigning CCC Defensive Player of the Year, junior goalkeeper Casey Ruvolo, and senior all-conference defenders/midfielders Sky Charley-Bolyard and Simon Huebner.

“We still have some experience and tried to replace what we lost in terms of style, recruiting the same model of players,” Carmichael said. “There are a lot of new faces trying to develop relationships and find cohesion, and the competition in practice is tough. We’re just figuring out as coaches the best combinations to put together, but we can play a variety of different ways with the depth we have.”

PRESEASON POLLS: Last week’s CCC coaches poll had the Raiders on top with eight of 14 first-place votes, just ahead of College of Idaho, the only circuit opponent that defeated them last year. They took the No. 25 spot in Wednesday’s NAIA Top 25, cracking the preseason rankings for the second time in team history.

No other CCC team received votes, and No. 15 Westcliff (Calif.) is the only other ranked team on the West Coast. SOU visits Westcliff on Sept. 13 for its final non-conference game.

LAST SEASON: The Raiders ran through the Cascade Conference with a 12-1 record — second-place College of Idaho and Warner Pacific were both seven points behind on the table — and won their first regular-season championship since 2018 while outscoring opponents 41-6 combined in circuit play. They went 18-4 overall and brought a program-record 11-game winning streak into the CCC Tournament championship game.

The regular-season title gave them an automatic bid to make their third NAIA National Tournament appearance, and after a first-round bye they lost in the second at eventual champion MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.).

POSITION BY POSITION

GOALKEEPERS: Casey Ruvolo shared the goalkeeper job as a freshman, but as a sophomore became the league’s premier player at his position. His CCC Defensive Player of the Year award came in after he shut out 10 opponents, turned in a save percentage of .826 and surrendered only three goals across 13 conference games. The job is his again, and he’ll be backed up by Aly Alvarado and Nico Herrera.

“Casey’s confidence and maturity are at a different level after last year,” Carmichael said. “He had a really productive summer and is in good form right now.”

DEFENDERS: As good as Ruvolo was in 2023, he got a lot of help from a back line that rarely made life uncomfortable for him: Over their final 15 games, the Raiders surrendered an average of just 3.5 shots on goal per outing.

Among their central defenders, senior Bryan Mendoza returns after starting 10 games and appearing in 18 during his first season at SOU. He has company in junior transfers Francesco Giusti, who earned all-conference merits at Cañada C.C. (Calif.), and Tristan Skerritt, an all-conference performer at Coffeyville C.C. (Kan.).

The Raiders have stability at fullback in two returning starters: All-CCC senior Simon Huebner and sophomore Daniel Palomino, who was among the CCC-play leaders in assists (4) as a true freshman. New to that group is Ben Laybourne — a product of England, like Skerritt, and a regular starter the last two seasons at Northwest C.C. (Wyo.).

MIDFIELDERS: Carmichael figures to be toying with midfield combinations well into the season, though he has a staple in third-year starter Sky Charley-Bolyard, a member of the All-CCC first team last year after logging six goals and two assists.

Kaden Barker is back from an injury redshirt — he started 14 games as a sophomore in 2022 — and Franco Fasoli is back in the mix after earning a reserve role in his debut season with the Raiders.

The newcomers to watch are freshman Emi Rojo, a perennial all-star during his prep career at Willamette High, and junior Kaito Nakayama. Nakayama is one of three Japanese players in the latest recruiting class; he was a United Soccer Coaches All-American last year at Phoenix C.C. (Ariz.), where he totaled eight goals and 11 assists over the last two seasons.

FORWARDS: Despite the considerable offensive firepower they lost, the Raiders are among the few CCC squads with the luxury of a returning 10-goal scorer. That was Evan Norconk’s final total in 2023, and the physical 6-foot senior managed most of that damage as a reserve. Like him, Mustafa Daggig will get more chances after finishing with four goals and two assists as a true freshman.

The Raiders added a couple more prolific playmakers in freshman Ariel De Dios Cruz — he accumulated 81 prep goals as a three-time Southwest Conference Player of the Year at Willamette High — and Ryosuke Tanaka, who rang up 19 goals at Skagit Valley C.C. (Wash.) in 2022 and seven more for NJCAA Division I champion Monroe C.C. (N.Y.) in ’23. They’ll eventually get back the services of Alex Hjulmand, the team’s fourth-leading points producer with six goals and eight assists last year.

“Opponents knew what we had last year with an established group of guys. I think we’ll be harder to scout this year and have some threats that people maybe don’t expect from us,” Carmichael said.