The Valpo volleyball team not only secured its spot in the MVC Tournament field with its 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 25-18) sweep at Evansville Saturday evening, the Beacons clinched a top-four finish in the Valley and are guaranteed to host at least one tournament match at the ARC. Saturday's victory moved Valpo to 6-0 in MVC road matches this season and matched the longest true road winning streak in program history.
 
How It Happened

• While Valpo hit at a sizzling .486 clip on the attack in the opening frame, a combination of service errors and setting errors had the Purple Aces in front for most of the set. Evansville led by as many as four points in the opener.
• UE's lead was still two at 20-18 before back-to-back kills from Kadence Brumitt (Niles, Mich./Brandywine) and a kill by Lilly Merk (Terre Haute, Ind./Terre Haute South Vigo) gave the Beacons a brief 21-20 lead. Consecutive Valpo errors returned the lead to the Purple Aces, but another kill from Brumitt evened things up at 22-all.
• Merk then combined with Lucas on a block to force an Evansville timeout with Valpo up 23-22. Out of the stoppage, Sam Warren (Kentland, Ind./South Newton) recorded a kill to give the Beacons set point, and an Evansville attack error closed the opener in Valpo's favor.
• The second set featured a match-high 14 ties and eight lead changes, with neither side extending a lead past two points until Valpo put together a block from Jessica Pickett (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) and Ava Helming (Johnston, Iowa/Johnston) followed by a Brumitt kill to force an Evansville timeout with the Beacons leading 20-17.
• Valpo extended out to a 23-19 edge to force the Purple Aces to use their second timeout, but three straight points cut the Beacons' lead to a single point. Warren earned set point with a kill, and Jordyn Gove (Amarillo, Texas/Randall) followed with a termination of her own to give the Beacons a 2-0 lead in the match.
• The third set was the tamest of the three in terms of back and forth, as Valpo took the lead at 4-3 and never surrendered it. The Beacons used a 5-0 run on the serve of Addy Kois (Osceola, Ind./Penn) to take a 12-6 lead, and the advantage never fell below three the rest of the way as Valpo closed its third consecutive sweep.

 
Inside the Match

• Valpo secured a number of objectives on Saturday, but it would be remiss not to start with the fact that the Beacons extended their winning streak in true road matches to eight straight — matching the 2013 team for the longest true road winning streak in program history.
• Valpo improved to a perfect 6-0 in MVC road matches this year, tying the 2023 squad for the longest road winning streak in conference play since joining the Valley.
• The 10-2 start to conference play is the program's best since finishing the 2005 Mid-Continent Conference campaign with a 13-1 record.
• Combined with other results, the Beacons clinched a top-four finish in the MVC standings on Saturday. With the change to the MVC Tournament format this year having top seeds host rather than a single site host, that means that Valpo will host a conference tournament game for the first time since it hosted the 2005 Mid-Con title match.
• Valpo secured a top-half MVC finish for the ninth time in as many seasons in the Valley — the only program to have done so in all nine of those seasons. In head coach Carin Avery's 24 seasons at the helm, the program has finished in the top half of the conference standings 23 times.
• Saturday's win leaves Valpo one win shy of 20 this season — if the Beacons reach that mark, it would be their 19^th 20-win season in Avery's 24 years.
• After winning just one of their first nine MVC matches this year via the sweep, the Beacons have swept their last three matches — the first time since 2019 they have won three straight sweeps in Valley play.
• Valpo tied its season low by committing just 10 attack errors in Saturday's win, including a first set without a single attack error — the Beacons hit at a .486 (17-0-35) clip in the opening frame.
• Brumitt had her second strong performance of the weekend, surpassing her career best with 14 kills on .367 hitting and tallying 10 digs for her third double-double of the season. The sophomore now has seven matches with 10+ kills this year after doing so in both matches the last two days.
• While Brumitt was the only Beacon in double digits in kills, she had plenty of help on the attack Saturday. Warren notched nine kills, while Helming hit .467 with seven kills.
• Kois moved within 23 assists of Valpo's career top-10 in the category as she tallied 15 assists Saturday.
• For the second straight night, Hickey recorded 20 digs, tying for match-high honors as she moved into 21^st in D-I history with 2,586 career digs.
• Merk had a huge match defensively Saturday, part of a match-best seven blocks to push her team-best season total to 93 rejections.

 
Next Up
Valpo (19-6, 10-2 MVC) continues its stretch of four straight road matches Friday afternoon at Belmont, with a 1 p.m. first serve.