The South Puget Sound League North Division just got a whole lot tougher on the volleyball court.

A league that already was considered among the state’s most difficult before its recent realignment, one that produces Division-I talent on an annual basis, did little to defuse that notion. If anything, the difficulty level in the North is increasing quickly this fall, thanks to the additions of Auburn and Auburn Riverside.

“It’s definitely going to be a tougher league,” said Kentwood coach Bil Caillier, whose team has won the last three North Division titles. “I think it’s good. We want to be in a situation where pressure is on us.”

The pressure certainly will be on the Conquerors – and every other team in the division – this fall. Because when the North realigned, it didn’t simply add new schools to the schedule.

Quite the contrary. Because while Auburn and Auburn Riverside were at the Class 3A level last year, they’ve been here before. Matter of fact, they’ve been here all except the past two years when they competed at 3A.

In Auburn Riverside, North opponents will receive a first-hand league test against a team that took second in the 3A state tournament last fall and won a school record 24 matches. That’s more wins last season than any North Division team other than Kentwood, which took third at 4A state in 2007 and recorded a school-record 35 victories.

Add in Auburn, a program that is on the rise with three returning starters, and subtract Decatur, a team that struggled during its time in the North, and there’s plenty of reason to believe this could be the deepest North Division to date.

“It’s a very deep league,” said Auburn coach Kim Farris, whose team returns three starters, led by junior setter Sierra Atkinson. “It’s going to be very hard to even get in the top five. But I think it’s good to be going back to 4A. It’s tougher competition, but it’s good for the girls.”

Auburn Riverside coach Chris Leverenz has reservations about the classification move.

“I would have liked to have gotten comfortable at 3A,” said Leverenz, whose team was one of the North powers before moving down a classification for two years. “It’s not fun (moving up). You have to re-establish the respect out there after being gone two years. There’s something to be said for having a name for yourself.”

Rest assured, Auburn Riverside, which opened the season ranked ninth, already has a foot in the door when it comes to establishing a name for itself. The Ravens are the last North Division team outside of Kentwood to have won the league crown, doing so in both 2003 and 2004. They’re also the last team to beat the Conquerors in league play, having done that on Sept. 23, 2004 — four years and 44 matches ago.

“I remember it,” said Caillier, whose team remains loaded again this season with four returning starters, including North Division MVP Jessie Genger, and enters the year ranked second among Class 4A teams. “We got humiliated.”

Since that loss and second-place finish in the North, Kentwood has put together a run of dominance that has included three consecutive perfect league seasons. But the current division lineup is anything but Kentwood and a bunch of throw-ins.

When it comes to state competition, there’s plenty of history here.

In fact, since 2000, Kentwood, Auburn Riverside and Kentlake have combined for 17 state berths, three titles and a second-place finish. Kentwood has qualified for state in six of the last seven years; Kentlake in six of the last eight, including the last three; while Auburn Riverside has advanced in each of the last two seasons.

Bringing the Ravens back into this year’s equation simply makes things that much more difficult, Kentridge coach Liz Quitiquit said.

“I think it definitely adds to the toughness,” Quitiquit said. “And now, to get out of district, it will be really, really hard.”

And while Kentwood enters the season as the consensus favorite among North coaches, Auburn Riverside, Kentlake and Kentridge all can make cases as to why each belongs among the elite.

For Riverside, the optimism stems from the return of two-time first-team all-leaguer Brooke Bray, who immediately will join Kentwood’s Genger as one of the North’s premier players.

“She has taken the next step up,” Leverenz said of Bray, who pounded 28 kills in a recent nonleague victory against Graham-Kapowsin. “She’s definitely better this year.”

Meanwhile, Kentlake has plenty of tradition on its side and, of course, the return of first-teamer Melissa Kozy, who packs plenty of punch herself. The Falcons also will get a boost from the return of Holly Marx, who is among the North’s most precise setters.