Valparaiso (2-1, 0-0 MVC)
at EMU Tournament (Ypsilanti, Mich.)
Thursday, Sept. 4 - vs. Purdue Fort Wayne (0-3) - noon CT
Friday, Sept. 5 - vs. Niagara (0-2) - 10 a.m. CT | at Eastern Michigan (2-1) - 5 p.m. CT

Next Up For Valpo Volleyball: The Valpo volleyball team continues early-season action with a rare Thursday/Friday set of tournament matches this week at Eastern Michigan. The Beacons take on Purdue Fort Wayne Thursday afternoon, Niagara Friday morning and the host Eagles Friday evening.

Previously: The Beacons opened the 2025 campaign by claiming a share of the tournament title at the USI Invitational, sweeping the host Screaming Eagles and Saint Louis and falling in five sets to Northern Kentucky. Ava Helming, Emma Hickey and Sam Warren represented Valpo on the All-Tournament Team.

Looking Ahead: Valpo heads to Northwestern for a Tuesday night match before trekking to the Lehigh Steel Classic next weekend.

Following the Beacons: Friday's match against Eastern Michigan will be streamed live on ESPN+, with live stats available for all three matches via ValpoAthletics.com.

Head Coach Carin Avery: In her 24th season as head coach at Valpo, Carin Avery is the all-time winningest head coach across all sports in the history of Valpo Athletics. She has won 509 matches (509-258, .664) at the helm of the program and has led Valpo to three league regular season and three league tournament titles. The program has made seven postseason appearances under Avery, including three NCAA Tournament appearances, and advanced to the championship match of the 2021 NIVC. Avery has coached 61 All-League recipients over her tenure at Valpo, which has spanned three different conferences. She is Valpo's all-time leader in both victories and winning percentage, and owns a 564-282 (.667) record overall as a head coach.

Series History: Purdue Fort Wayne - Valpo holds a slim 13-12 advantage in the all-time series with the Mastodons, but under Coach Avery, it's a 10-5 advantage - including wins in each of the last eight meetings. Last season, the Beacons swept the Mastodons as part of the Popcorn Classic behind 13 kills and 18 digs from Elise Swistek.

Niagara - Valpo won the lone matchup in the all-time series in August 2010, sweeping the Purple Eagles as part of the La Salle Invitational.

Eastern Michigan - EMU owns a 5-4 edge in the all-time series, but Coach Avery has a 3-2 advantage in the last five matchups. Last season, the Eagles earned a 3-1 win at IU Indy's Hampton Inn Invitational.

Scouting the Opposition: Purdue Fort Wayne - The Mastodons went 0-3 on opening weekend, falling to Middle Tennessee State, Butler and Evansville. Purdue Fort Wayne went 17-15 a season ago, including a 10-8 mark in Horizon League play, and was picked to finish in seventh place in the Horizon standings this year.

Niagara - The Purple Eagles went 0-2 on opening weekend, falling to Syracuse and Le Moyne. Niagara went 15-15 last season, including an 11-7 mark in MAAC action, and was picked to finish in sixth place in the MAAC this year.

Eastern Michigan - The Eagles went 2-1 on opening weekend, defeating Radford and Kansas City and falling to Marshall. Eastern Michigan went 13-19 last year, including a 7-11 record in MAC play, and was picked to finish in eighth place in the MAC standings this year.

Capturing Crowns: Valpo continued its penchant for winning in-season tournament titles under Carin Avery on opening weekend, claiming a share of the crown at the USI Invitational. Valpo has won 35 in-season tournament titles in Avery's time as head coach. The team has won at least one tournament in 18 of her seasons, and multiple tournaments 11 times. Those tournament titles have come in 14 different states.

Player of the Week: One week in, and one weekly award winner already for the Beacons, as Emma Hickey was tabbed the MVC Defensive Player of the Week for opening weekend. Hickey averaged an MVC-best 6.60 digs/set for the weekend, leading all players in the category in all three contests, and committed just one serve reception error in 49 attempts. Her weekend was highlighted by a 33-dig performance against Northern Kentucky, the 14th time in her career she's reached 30 or more digs in a match. The Defensive Player of the Week honor is the fifth-such accolade of Hickey's career and her sixth weekly award overall from the conference office. Hickey's 66-dig weekend pushed her career dig total to 2,144 digs - most of any active NCAA player (all divisions) and 603 digs more than the next-highest D-I player.

Helming Hits Them Hard: There's something about season openers that brings out the best in sophomore right side Ava Helming. Last year, she opened her career with a 20-kill effort, and this season, she kicked things off in the sweep of Southern Indiana with a match-high 14 kills on .480 hitting - the best hitting percentage of her career with a minimum of 10 kills. Helming followed with a team-high 12 kills against Northern Kentucky and closed things out by tying for match-high honors with 10 kills on .300 hitting in the sweep of Saint Louis.

Senior Starting Strong: Senior right side Sam Warren got her final campaign off to a good start on opening weekend. She was super-efficient in the sweep of USI, needing just 14 swings for her seven kills, good for a .500 hitting percentage. Warren then reached double figures in kills for the 13th time in her career with a 10-kill effort against NKU, and narrowly missed hitting double digits again in the sweep of Saint Louis, finishing with nine kills on .350 hitting.

All-Tournament Accolades: The aforementioned trio of players represented the Beacons on the USI Invitational All-Tournament Team. For Hickey, it was the fifth All-Tournament Team of her career; for Warren, her fourth; and for Helming, her second.

Near the Top: While Hickey led the MVC in digs on opening weekend, two other Beacons finished the weekend second in a stat category as well. Sophomore Lilly Merk posted a .429 hitting percentage over the season's first three matches, including an eye-popping .588 clip in Valpo's two wins. Back at the service line, sophomore Kadence Brumitt - whose previous career high in service aces was two - delivered four aces against NKU and three against Saint Louis for a 0.70/set average for the weekend.

Looking Back at Last Year: Valpo is coming off an 18-win season in 2024, a campaign highlighted by the amount of production generated by the team's youth. Jessica Pickett set program freshman records for hitting percentage and blocks, while Ava Helming had the third-most kills by a freshman in Avery's tenure as both rookies earned spots on the MVC All-Freshman Team. On the more veteran side, Emma Hickey became the fastest player in program history and tied for the fastest in MVC history to reach 2,000 career digs.

Who's Back: In a nutshell, everybody who could be. All 16 players who ended last season on the Beacons squad with remaining eligibility return for Valpo in 2025. That group accounted for 78.1% of the kills, 84.4% of the service aces, 78.0% of the digs and 93.9% of the blocks from the 2024 season.

Who's Gone: Valpo graduated just two players from last year's squad: Abby Boyle and Elise Swistek. Swistek's production will be the big piece to replace, as she closed her time at Valpo as one of just 10 players in program history to surpass 1,000 kills (1,018; 19th) and 1,000 digs (1,479; 12th).

Who's New: The Beacons welcome two freshmen to the large group of returnees this year. Keira Lucas is an outside hitter who was a three-time All-State honoree at Northview [Ind.] H.S., while Olivia Wagner is a setter who helped lead Lakeville South [Minn.] H.S. to the 2024 Minnesota Class AAAA state championship.

Winning Tradition Continues: The Beacons secured a winning 2024 season as they completed the campaign with an 18-14 record, the 21st winning season in 23 years under head coach Carin Avery. Valpo has won 20 or more matches in 18 of Avery's 23 seasons as well, and has averaged 22 wins per season in Avery's tenure.

Top Half Finishes: The Beacons finished the 2024 regular season in a tie for sixth place in the MVC standings with Murray State. Valpo has now finished in the top-half of the Valley standings in each of its eight years in the conference, the only MVC program to accomplish that feat. Going back further, Valpo has posted top-half conference finishes in 22 of Avery's 23 seasons - as well as qualifying for the conference tournament in each of her 23 seasons - and 31 of the last 32 years overall.

Young But Mighty: Legendary college basketball coach Al McGuire is credited for having said "The best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores." If that's the case for last year's class of Valpo volleyball freshmen, opponents are in for a rough time this season. Last year's freshman class accounted for 59.1% of the team's kills, 31.% of the aces and 73.6% of the blocks in the 2024 campaign. That comes out to a total of 58.7% of the team's points accounted for by freshmen last season, a mark which ranked third nationally among D-I programs, trailing only Mississippi Valley State and Le Moyne - two programs which combined for just eight wins, compared with the Beacons' 18 victories. Prior to last season, none of Avery's teams in her time at Valpo had freshmen account for even 30% of the team's points.

Digging Deep: Valpo continued its long tradition of strong back row play last fall, finishing the 2024 campaign 19th nationally with an average of 17.20 digs/set. The program has ranked among the top-30 nationally in digs/set in every season since 2009, including 14 seasons among the top-20 and four seasons among the top-10 - highlighted by the 2017 campaign in which Valpo led the nation with 20.03 digs/set. Other top finishes include fourth nationally in the spring 2021 season (20.37/set), a fourth-place rank in 2010 and a sixth-place finish in 2015. Since the move to 25-point scoring, only seven teams have averaged more than 20 digs/set over the course of a season, and Valpo is the only program to have done it twice. 2018 saw Valpo lead the nation with 2,613 total digs - a mark which set a program single-season record and a Division I record in the 25-point era. Valpo also boasts two of the top-10 athletes in D-I history in career digs - Rylee Cookerly (2nd; 3,175) and Taylor Root (10th; 2,752).

Libero on Lockdown: Senior Emma Hickey has been quite simply one of the nation's most prolific liberos since stepping on campus prior to the 2022 campaign. She's ranked among the top-15 nationally in digs/set in each of her first three seasons, ending last season in third position with 5.72 digs/set. Her 715 total digs last year were sixth-most in a single season in program history.

The Pickett Fence: Sophomore Jessica Pickett made a big impact at the net in her first season of collegiate volleyball last year. An MVC All-Freshman Team honoree, Pickett ranked third in the Valley in blocks/set (1.14, 139 total) and fourth in hitting percentage (.331). She  set Valpo freshman records for both hitting percentage and total blocks - her hitting percentage ranked third overall and second in the 25-point era in Valpo's single-season record book, while he block total ranked eighth overall and third in the 25-point era.

At the Helm(ing): Sophomore Ava Helming joined Pickett as an MVC All-Freshman Team honoree last season for her strong work on both sides of the net at the right pin as a rookie. Helming ranked second on the team with 293 kills and 78 blocks - her 293 kills is tied for third-most by a freshman under head coach Carin Avery, while 78 blocks ranks sixth by a freshman under Avery. The only other freshman to rank among the top-10 in both kills and blocks by a rookie in the Avery era was another right side in Morgan Beil, who developed into a three-time All-Horizon League performer.

Next Stop, 600: Head coach Carin Avery reached yet another milestone last October, winning her 500th match in charge of the Valpo program with the Beacons' win at Murray State. Valpo's all-time winningest coach in any sport, Avery's 500th win came in her 752nd match in charge of the program. Avery is the second current MVC coach to win at least 500 matches at their current institution, joining UNI's Bobbi Petersen.