Valparaiso (0-2, 0-0 MVC)
Game #3 - November 12, 2025 - 6:30 p.m.
at #16/17 Iowa State (3-0, 0-0 Big 12)
Hilton Coliseum (14,267) - Ames, Iowa

Next Up in Valpo Basketball: The Valpo women's basketball team plays its third straight road game to open the 2025-26 campaign on Wednesday evening, as the Beacons face a nationally-ranked test at #16/17 Iowa State.

Previously: Valpo cut an early 18-point deficit to three points and went into halftime trailing by just six points Saturday at Detroit Mercy, but the host Titans pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 78-48 victory. Fiona Connolly set a career high in scoring for the second straight game, pouring in 19 points.

Following Valpo Basketball: Video: ESPN+
Links for live coverage: Available via ValpoAthletics.com

Head Coach Courtney Boyd (0-2 at Valpo, 1st season; 190-70 [.731] overall, 9th season): Courtney Boyd was named the ninth head coach of the Valparaiso University women's basketball program on Friday, April 4, 2025. A national championship-winning head coach and player, an NAIA National Coach of the Year, and a two-time conference Coach of the Year, Boyd has won 20 or more games in seven of her first eight seasons as a head coach. She spent the last two seasons at the helm of the Quincy University program after six seasons as head coach at Clarke University, leading the latter program to the NAIA national title in 2022-23.

Series Notes: Wednesday will be the first meeting all-time between Valpo and Iowa State.

@ValpoWBB...
...at Detroit Mercy
- The Titans opened the game on a 21-3 run over a stretch of nearly nine minutes.
- Valpo responded with a 17-2 run of its own spanning the first two quarters, pulling back to within 23-20 with 5:42 to play in the first half.
- The Titans maintained a lead in the mid-single digits for the remainder of the half, as Valpo went into the locker room trailing 33-27.
- The Beacons cut the deficit to four in the first minute of the third quarter and had six shots on their next two trips to make it a one-possession game, but were unable to convert.
- UDM took advantage, going on a 10-0 run to extend its lead to 43-29 and force a Valpo timeout approaching the midway point of the quarter. The margin fluctuated between nine and 15 points the rest of the period, with the Titans eventually taking a 53-41 lead with 10 minutes to play.
- Valpo was unable to get any closer than that 12-point spread in the fourth quarter, and the Titans went on to end the game on a 15-0 run to extend the final margin.
- Fiona Connolly tied for game-high honors with 19 points and led the Beacons with nine rebounds, both of which were career highs.
- Playing just her second collegiate game, Allia von Schlegell reached double figures in the scoring column with 10 points - including three 3-pointers - while not committing a turnover in 26 minutes of action.
- Mikayla Huffine tied her career best with six rebounds and also dished out a game-high four assists.
- Valpo shot just 28.6% (18-of-63) from the floor, hit just 25% (6-of-24) from 3-point range and was only 46.2% (6-of-13) from the foul line. The Beacons also committed 24 turnovers against their former Horizon League rivals while forcing just 13 UDM miscues.

...at DePaul
- Valpo led 8-6 just over three minutes into the game thanks to five early points from Mor Shabtai and a 3-pointer by Kayla Sullivan.
- An 8-0 run gave the Blue Demons the lead for good, but the Beacons closed to within 22-20 at the end of the first quarter.
- DePaul reeled off nine straight points over the opening 2:30 of the second quarter to extend its lead to double figures, but Valpo eventually erased most of that deficit and only trailed 38-32 at halftime.
- DePaul scored eight points within one minute on its first three trips of the third quarter to push its lead to 46-32. The margin remained right around that 14-point mark for most of the period, until the Blue Demons scored the final eight points of the period to make it 63-41 with 10 minutes to play.
- While the Beacons scored on each of their first three trips of the fourth quarter, DePaul connected on its first six shots of the period to prevent Valpo from cutting into the lead.
- Valpo shot just 36.7% (18-of-49) from the field, while DePaul hit at a 44.3% (39-of-88) clip. The Blue Demons grabbed 18 offensive rebounds and were a +25 in the turnover department, committing just 10 miscues while forcing 35 Valpo turnovers.
- Fiona Connolly paced Valpo with 12 points.
- Eight of Valpo's newcomers saw action in the season's first game, with Mikayla Huffine and Kamryn Winch debuting in the starting five - the latter grabbing a team-best 11 rebounds.
- Sophomore Kylie Waytashek also made her first start in a Beacon uniform.

...looking ahead
- The Beacons play their first home game next time out, welcoming Milwaukee to the ARC next Sunday at 4 p.m.
- Valpo then returns to the road, playing at South Dakota Friday, Nov. 21.

...on the road 
- Wednesday's game is the third of six nonconference true road games for the Beacons, who will play 10 road games in MVC play as well.
- Valpo is currently 0-2 in true road games.
- Valpo will play 18 games in all away from home, as it has a pair of neutral-site games in Cleveland.
- Last season's squad posted a 3-11 mark in true road games.

...and @ValleyHoops
- Valpo is in its ninth season as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference.
- Valpo was picked outside the top-four of the MVC preseason poll, as the Valley released only the top four selections.
- The Valley finished last season ranked seventh in the NET, matching the conference's highest NET/RPI ranking in Valpo's time as an MVC member (2020-21).

...looking back at last year
- Valpo finished last season with a 13-19 overall record and went 9-11 in MVC play to finish in eighth place.
- Among the Beacons' 13 victories were a thrilling rally from a 20-point deficit for a home win over Drake which entered the game ranked 69th in NET, the program's highest-ranked win since a win over #54 UNI in 2021-22.
- Leah Earnest was tabbed a First Team All-MVC honoree as she concluded a decorated career that saw her finish first in program history in career rebounds and third in career scoring.
- The 2024-25 Beacons hit 245 3-pointers, third-most in a single season in program history, and tallied 314 steals, seventh on the program's single-season chart and the most since 2001-02.

@CycloneWBB
- Iowa State enters Wednesday's game at 3-0 on the season, most recently beating Sacred Heart on Sunday, 99-34.
- The Cyclones went 23-12 last year, including a 12-6 mark in Big 12 play. They won a First Four game in the NCAA Tournament before dropping their first-round game.
- A Third Team All-American last season, Audi Crooks paces ISU with 23.3 points/game on .700 shooting through its first three games.

Facing Ranked Opposition
- Wednesday marks the 49th time in program history that Valpo will face a team ranked in the top-25 of one of the two major national polls (AP and/or Coaches).
- Valpo owns one win over a nationally-ranked team in program history - a 71-60 home victory over #21/23 Purdue Dec. 10, 2008.
- It is the program's first nationally-ranked opponent since the Beacons hosted #22/23 Notre Dame Dec. 8, 2021.
- The Cyclones are Valpo's highest-ranked opponent since the program played at #1/1 Notre Dame Dec. 4, 2016.

Taking on the Big 12
- Valpo is 0-7 all-time against current Big 12 programs - 0-3 versus Cincinnati and 0-1 apiece versus Colorado, Houston, Kansas State and Texas Tech.
- Of those, only the Texas Tech (Nov. 27, 2002) and Kansas State (March 21, 2004 - NCAA Tournament) games were played when those programs resided in the Big 12.

Road Warriors
- Wednesday is Valpo's third straight road game to open the season, while in all, the Beacons will play seven of their first eight games of the year away from home.
- The last time Valpo played this many consecutive road games to start a season came in 2020-21, when it opened with four straight road contests.
- The last time Valpo had a stretch like this in terms of games away from home to open the season came in 2013-14, when it started with eight of its first nine games away from home.

Plenty of Time on I-80
- This trip is the first of three visits Valpo will make to the state of Iowa this year.
- While the Beacons play Drake and UNI back-to-back in February within Missouri Valley Conference play, the games are separated by a full week, necessitating two more trips.

Career Bests
- Of Valpo's five players with previous D-I experience who played in the season opener at DePaul, three of them set career highs in the scoring department.
- Leading the way was Fiona Connolly with 12 points, topping her previous best of 10 points last season against Illinois State.
- Connolly went on to easily top that mark last time out at Detroit Mercy, scoring 19 points while also grabbing a career-best nine boards. 
- With eight points at DePaul, Mor Shabtai edged past her previous best of seven points last season against Goshen.
- Milana Nenadic doubled her previous career best of four points, coming off the bench with eight points at DePaul.
- Nenadic also tripled her previous career best in the rebounding department by grabbing six boards at DePaul, while Kamryn Winch also set a career high with a team-best 11 boards.
- At Detroit Mercy, Mikayla Huffine matched her career best with six rebounds.

Hitting From Deep
- Freshman Allia von Schlegell has seen her shooting form translate to the collegiate game early in her career.
- von Schlegell went 2-for-3 from deep at DePaul and followed with a 3-for-4 effort from downtown last time out at Detroit Mercy.
- Her .714 3-point percentage is tops among MVC players and tied for 19th nationally, while she is tied for fifth in the Valley with 2.5 made triples per game.

Who's Back
- The Beacons return seven players from their 2024-25 squad for the 2025-26 campaign.
- While seven players are back for another season in the Brown and Gold, Valpo has to replace its four leading scorers as it lost 73.8% of its scoring and 66.9% of its rebounding from last season's team.
- A pair of seniors who played big roles as incoming transfers last season highlight the group of returnees: Maci Rhoades and Fiona Connolly.
- Raeven Raye-Redmond, Mor Shabtai, Kayla Preston, Kylie Waytashek and Bella Swedlund round out the returning group.

Who's New
- Boyd is blending a diverse group of nine newcomers with the seven returnees to fill out the 16-player roster. 
- The group of newcomers includes four true freshmen and five transfers - one Division I, two Division II and two junior college.
- Senior Mikayla Huffine spent the last two years playing under Boyd's tutelage at Quincy.
- A pair of redshirt junior posts enter their first season as Beacons: Milana Nenadic (Idaho State/Maine) and Kamryn Winch (Maryville).
- Valpo also brings in junior college transfers Kayla Sullivan (State Fair C.C.) and Kennedy Sproule (Bay College).
- Four freshmen will be getting their first taste of college basketball this year: Isabella Anderson, Nuala Connolly, Autumn Dibb and Allia von Schlegell.

International Flavor
- Valpo has a trio of international players on its 2025-26 roster: sophomore Mor Shabtai (Israel) and transfers Milana Nenadic (Ontario, Canada) and Kennedy Sproule (Manitoba, Canada).
- Prior to Shabtai's arrival last year, the Valpo program hadn't had an international player since Sharon Karungi (Uganda) roamed the paint from 2013-15.

Sister Act
- For the third straight season, the Beacons have a pair of sisters on their roster, as freshman Nuala Connolly joins senior sister Fiona on this year's squad.
- The last two years featured identical twins Nevaeh and Saniya Jackson.
- Before that, the last set of sisters to suit up together in the Brown and Gold were the trio of Hamlet sisters: Annemarie (2013-16) overlapped with both older sister Elizabeth (2013-14) and younger sister Meredith (2015-19).