But Northern Kentucky has earned the No. 1 seed going into the last weekend of games, meaning the Raiders will be trying to earn an NCAA bid as the league tourney champ on the road for only the second time in the last seven years.
The way Green sees it, though, that’s not necessarily a disadvantage.
“I don’t know if this is true or not, but when you come in as the 1 seed and win the regular season, there’s a lot of external expectations. It’ll be good to kind of have some of those not as high, I guess you would say,” he said.
The Raiders were knocked off at home in the semifinals in 2019 and 2024.
When Milwaukee was the host team in 2021, both the Raiders and Panthers lost in the semis.
“I’ll be excited to go on the road, be in a hotel, stay together and just see what that experience is like,” Green said.
“I think we have all the pieces to be able to win it.”
The Raiders (17-10 overall, 11-5 in the HL) haven’t had their typically dominant season — mostly because of Mya Ayro’s absence.
She leads the league in kills per set at 3.99, but she missed four games with an undisclosed injury, and the Raiders lost three league matches in a row for the first time since 2019.
She returned for a pair of wins last weekend at Purdue Fort Wayne. And the Raiders still have the inside track on the 2 seed in the tourney, which would mean a quarterfinal bye into the semis.
They play seventh-place Oakland (7-9, 7-21) at 6 p.m. Friday and on Senior Day at 2 p.m. Saturday.
IU Indy (17-11, 11-5) is tied with Wright State for second but plays NKU (19-8, 15-1) at home in back-to-back games to finish the regular season.
The Raiders have the tiebreaker for the 2 seed.
“Mya is a big piece of our team, obviously, from an offensive standpoint. She carries a very significant load,” Green said.
“She sort of has a style to her as a powerful attacker that at some level can be hard to replace. We’re glad to have her back.”
Taylor Bransfield, who has spent six years in the program because of injuries, will be taking some Senior Day bows. She’s ninth in the league in hitting percentage (.271) and 13th in blocks per set (0.8), and she’s fourth on the team in kills (206).
The other two departing seniors were part of Green’s first recruiting class: Elena Dubuc (fifth on the team in kills with 158) and sub setter Andrea Bortulin.
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