Valparaiso (14-12, 6-8 MVC)
Friday, Nov. 13 - Drake (14-12, 9-5 MVC) - 6 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 14 - UNI (20-5, 14-0 MVC) - 5 p.m.

Next Up For Valpo Volleyball: The Valpo volleyball team enters the final weekend of regular season play with a potential spot in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament on the line, as it hosts Drake and UNI at the ARC. The Beacons will honor a trio of seniors Saturday evening following their Senior Night match.

Previously: Valpo extended its winning streak to three straight matches with road wins over both of its in-state foes last week, holding off a match point in a five-set win over Indiana State before sweeping Evansville.

Looking Ahead: Should Valpo qualify for the MVC Tournament, its opening-round match would be on the road Wednesday evening, Nov. 18.

Following the Beacons: Both of this weekend's matches will be broadcast on ESPN+ as part of The Valley on ESPN. Live stats will also be available for both matches via ValpoAthletics.com.

Series History: Drake - Valpo owns a 14-11 lead in the all-time series, including a 10-9 advantage since joining the Valley. But it's Drake which has won seven of the last eight matchups, including a 3-1 win in Des Moines last month. Ava Helming had 16 kills for the Beacons in that matchup, while Keira Lucas had 17 digs.

UNI - The Panthers hold a 22-4 advantage in the all-time series, including a 16-4 mark since Valpo joined the MVC. Valpo won both matchups in the spring of 2021 and in the fall of 2021, but UNI has won the last eight. In this season's first meeting, the Panthers earned a three-set sweep as they hit .364 while limiting the Beacons to .071 hitting.

Scouting the Opposition: Drake - The Bulldogs enter Friday night's match having already clinched a spot in the MVC Tournament field, with a 9-5 record in conference play and a 14-12 overall mark. Jasmine Dulan leads all Valley players, averaging 5.22 digs/set.

UNI - The Panthers have already wrapped up the MVC regular season title, entering the weekend with a 20-5 overall record and a perfect 14-0 mark in Valley play. UNI boasts the MVC's top two players in kills/set (Cassidy Hartman, 4.34; Lily Dykstra, 4.19), as well as the leader in assists/set (Reese Booth, 10.49) and blocks/set (Maryn Bixby, 1.24).

How to Make the Field: The simplest way for Valpo to earn the sixth seed in the MVC Tournament is to win at least one more match than UIC this weekend. While the two squads are currently tied in the standings and split their two regular season matchups, UIC holds the tiebreaker by virtue of a 4-3 advantage in sets won in the two meetings. There is also a scenario where Valpo and UIC each lose both of their matchups this weekend, Murray State wins both and Southern Illinois drops at least one match which would result in a three-way tie at 6-10 between Valpo, UIC and Murray State - that tiebreaker would go to Valpo with a 2-1 record against the other two teams, while UIC would be 2-2 and Murray State 1-2.

Celebrating the Seniors: Saturday's match against UNI will be the program's Senior Night, with three seniors being honored following the match. Lindley Martin will be graduating in three years, Mara Thomas has spent four years in the Beacons uniform and Maddie Kmetz joined the program this year after graduating from Western Michigan.

1000 for Ava: With her second kill of last Friday's match at Indiana State, junior Ava Helming became the latest member of Valpo's 1,000-kill club. She is the 21st player to reach the mark at Valpo, and notably, only the fifth to reach it in her third season with the program, joining Angie Porché, Lori Barton, Emily Campbell and Cheri Hughes - three of those four are in the Valpo Athletics Hall of Fame, while Campbell becomes eligible for induction next year. Despite only tallying nine kills Saturday at Evansville, snapping a streak of 17 straight regular season MVC contests reaching double figures in kills dating back to last year, Helming moved up two spots in the record book and now ranks 19th in program history with 1,019 kills.

Hoosier State Crown: With their pair of wins at Indiana State and Evansville last weekend, the Beacons secured the unofficial MVC Hoosier State crown. Valpo posted a 3-1 record against the other two Indiana-based programs this year, while Indiana State was 2-2 and Evansville 1-3. Valpo has dominated the series against both programs since joining the Valley, posting the best record seven times in the 10 seasons it has been in the conference, including each of the last four years. UE and INS have posted the best record once apiece in that span, while all three teams were 2-2 against each other in the spring of 2021. Valpo is 27-9 against UE and INS since joining the Valley.

Holding Off Match Point: It was a nerve-wracking end to the Beacons' victory at Indiana State Friday, as Valpo stared a Sycamore match point in the face at 13-14 of the fifth set, but came out of a timeout and scored four of the final five points of the match to emerge with the win. It was the team's first win after facing an opposing match point since its Oct. 19, 2024 win at Belmont, and the first time winning after holding off a match point in the fifth set since a win over South Alabama Sept. 4, 2021.

Big Rallies: Valpo wouldn't have even been in the fifth set in Terre Haute last Friday had it not been for a big fourth-set rally. The Beacons found themselves down 10-4 in that frame before erasing the entire deficit with a 6-0 run and eventually going on to claim the set, at the time matching the largest deficit they had erased to win a set this year. But the very next day, Valpo did one better, overcoming a seven-point deficit - the latest coming at 14-7 - to take the opening set at Evansville.

Clean Play: Valpo has come away with three-set wins each of the last two Saturdays, both of them notable for how clean its play was on the attack. In the sweep at Bradley, the Beacons committed just 16 attack errors, nine fewer than the Braves, and only eight of those were non-block errors. Then, last time out at Evansville, there were only 14 Valpo attack errors, five fewer than the Purple Aces, and only five of those were non-block errors.

Pickett Blocks It: With her third block of the contest Oct. 22 at UIC, junior Jessica Pickett reached the 300-block milestone for her collegiate career. Pickett became the 16th player in program history to reach that milestone, and with 321 career blocks entering the week, ranks 14th in program history and is just 37 away from cracking the program's career top-10 chart.

25-4: It was a set unlike any other played in the rally scoring era at the ARC, as the Beacons held Indiana State to just four points in the second set of their match Oct. 24. That mark ties the fewest points Valpo has surrendered in a set (excluding fifth sets), as it previously won the opening set 25-4 at Wright State on Oct. 29, 2011. Maggie Uhwat served 16 consecutive points to close the 25-4 win over the Sycamores, a mark which according to the NCAA Record Book is tied for the 10th-most consecutive points served in D-I history.

Perhaps a Record?: Not only did Pickett reach the 300-block milestone for her career recently, she has been strong on the attack over the last three weekends as well. The junior has posted the two highest single-match kill totals of her career in that stretch, with 15 at Illinois State and 14 at home versus Indiana State, and has hit .427 over the last six matches. That has boosted her season hitting percentage to an MVC-best .373, a mark which if the season ended today would set the program single-season record for hitting percentage. Mallory Januski currently holds the record at .353, a mark which itself is 19 points higher than second place.

Play That Ace: This year's Valpo squad has been among the best in program history in terms of service aces. The Beacons are currently averaging 1.63 aces/set, a mark which is on pace to easily smash the program's best average in the 25-point era, which sits at 1.46 aces/set. Already this season, four individual performances and four team performances have cracked the single match top-five charts for aces, while Maggie Uhwat has already breached the program's single-season top-five for aces in the 25-point era and is just two away from second position. As a team, the Beacons's season total of 165 aces is already fourth-most in the 25-point era.

One-Two Punch: The combination of junior outside Jordyn Gove and junior right side Ava Helming has consistently paced the Beacons' attack this year. Helming currently ranks fourth in the MVC with 3.62 kills/set, with Gove close behind her in sixth with 3.15 kills/set. Gove, who entered the season with a career high of 16 kills, has surpassed 20 kills five times already this season, including a career-best 24 kills against Evansville. Meanwhile, Helming has had four matches with at least 20 kills, including a career-best 28 kills against Cleveland State - a mark which ties the most by a Valpo player in the 25-point era.

Player of the Week: Helming was named the MVC Player of the Week Sept. 14 following a weekend in northeastern Ohio where she averaged an MVC-best 4.62 kills/set on .261 hitting, highlighted by her career-high 28-kill effort in the win over Cleveland State. It is the third MVC Player of the Week honor of Helming's career, as she had one apiece as well in each of her first two seasons.

Capturing Crowns: Part of the volleyball program's winning tradition has been a penchant for capturing tournament titles, and that continued in 2026, as the Beacons claimed the Chattanooga Classic on opening weekend and the WNY Invitational in the season's fourth weekend. Valpo has won 38 in-season tournament titles since the start of the 2002 campaign. The team has won at least one tournament in 19 of those 25 seasons, and multiple tournaments 12 times. Those tournament titles have come in 14 different states. 

All-Tournament Honors: The Beacons had four players receive All-Tournament Team accolades over their two tournaments which presented an All-Tournament Team:
Valpo - Jordyn Gove
Chattanooga - Gove (MVP), Ava Helming, Maggie Uhwat