Valpo (1-2-1, 0-0-0 MVC)
Sunday, Aug. 30 - at Western Michigan (1-0-2) - noon CT

Next Up in Valpo Soccer: It's a light week for the Beacons this week, as the Valpo soccer team faces just one match - a Sunday afternoon meeting at Western Michigan.

Previously: The Beacons went 0-1-1 in the opening week of action, falling 2-0 at Eastern Illinois on Thursday afternoon before drawing 2-2 at SIUE on Sunday.

Looking Ahead: Valpo returns to a two-match week next week, remaining on the road with matches Thursday at Purdue Fort Wayne and Sunday at Milwaukee.

Following the Beacons: There will be a video stream of Sunday's match and live stats will be available at ValpoAthletics.com. All home matches will be broadcast live on ESPN+ as part of The Valley on ESPN, while select road fixtures will also have live video available. 

Head Coach John Marovich: In his 19th season at the helm of the Valpo program, John Marovich holds a 142-141-54 (.501) record both overall and at Valpo as a head coach. The 2014 Horizon League Coach of the Year and the head of the 2022 MVC Coaching Staff of the Year, Marovich is Valpo's all-time leader in victories.

Series Notes: Valpo and Western Michigan have met nine times in program history, with the Broncos owning a 7-2-0 advantage in the all-time series. Despite being located less than two hours apart, the two sides have not met since Sept. 15, 2017 - a 1-0 WMU win in Kalamazoo. Valpo's last win in the series came back on Brown Field on Sept. 7, 2012, a 2-0 triumph.

Scouting the Opposition: The Broncos are off to a strong 1-0-2 start to the season, drawing Idaho 1-1 and beating Hawaii 3-1 before most recently battling to a scoreless draw with #12 Colorado Thursday evening at home. WMU captured the 2025 MAC regular season and tournament championships, winning 16 matches a season ago, and was picked in the preseason poll to once again win the MAC in 2026. The Broncos are especially tough to take down on their home pitch, as they are 24-2-4 at the WMU Soccer Complex since the start of the 2023 season.

Challenging Road Stretch: This current three-match stretch away from home will challenge the Beacons with perhaps their two toughest tests of the season. WMU posted a 16-4-1 record on its way to MAC regular season and tournament titles and an NCAA Tournament appearance, while a week from Sunday, Valpo travels to take on Milwaukee, which went 13-5-3 last season, claimed Horizon League regular season and tournament titles en route to the NCAA Tournament.

A Big Win: Valpo's 4-0 victory over Western Illinois was the program's largest margin of victory and most goals scored since downing the Leathernecks 5-1 last season. It also marked the program's largest home victory since a 5-1 win over Chicago State Aug. 31, 2023.

Stringing Together Multiple Goals: The Beacons have found the back of the net eight times over the last three matches, bookending the four-goal performance against WIU with multiple goals against SIUE and Detroit Mercy. It is the first time Valpo has scored at least two goals in three straight contests since doing so in a three-match stretch in MVC play versus Evansville, Belmont and Murray State in October 2022. You have to go back to 2013 to find the last time the program scored two or more goals in four straight fixtures.

A Rare Defeat: The Beacons' loss to Detroit Mercy last Sunday was notable in that they fell despite finding the back of the net twice. Valpo entered the day 31-0-3 in its previous 34 matches when scoring at least two goals. Prior to Sunday, the last time Valpo had dropped such a match came in a 3-2 defeat at Indiana State Oct. 5, 2019.

Back-to-Back: Sophomore Brylie Walos entered last weekend without a collegiate goal to her credit and having taken just 10 shot attempts in 19 career matches, but she made sure she wouldn't exit the weekend that way. Walos found the back of the net in the eighth minute against Western Illinois for the eventual match-winner, and followed against UDM on Sunday with a 71st-minute goal which brought the Beacons to within 3-2. She is the first Valpo player to net a goal in consecutive matches since Molly O'Rear did so against Western Illinois and Drake mid-September last season.

Brace Yourself: Sophomore Martha Goddard did a lot of things last year as a rookie on her way to MVC All-Freshman Team honors, but she added a new accomplishment to her resume in the Western Illinois win last Thursday. Goddard stepped up to a penalty kick and dispatched it for her first goal of the season in the 67th minute, and then capped the scoring with a 75th-minute strike for her first career brace. The sophomore has now tallied five collegiate goals.

One, Two, Three Goal Involvements: Junior Ashley Trippeer came into the WIU match with one goal and no assists across her 37 collegiate matches before playing a part in three of Valpo's four goals in the win. Trippeer delivered the primary assist on Walos' match-winner, scored her second collegiate goal in the 13th minute and registered the assist on Goddard's second goal to make it three goal involvements on the evening. Trippeer is the first Valpo player with a multi-assist match since Molly O'Rear did so at Western Illinois last year, and the first with three goal involvements in a match since O'Rear and Kiara Desiderio did so in the aforementioned match.

Just Helping Out: Junior Alyssa Thomas tallied one assist apiece in each of her first two collegiate seasons, but has outdone her career total already through just two weekends of play. Thomas assisted on Valpo's second goal in the draw at SIUE, on the match-winning goal in the win over WIU and on the Beacons' first goal against Detroit Mercy. She is the first Beacon to accomplish that since Martha Goddard did so last year in nonconference play — prior to that, you have to go back to 2017 to find a Valpo player with helpers in three consecutive contests.

Picking Up Where She Left Off: It's no surprise to see sophomore Kiara Desiderio celebrating goals, and she has done so twice already this season, giving the Beacons the lead in the 81st minute at SIUE in the eventual draw and getting Valpo on the board late in the first half last time out against Detroit Mercy. Desiderio now has nine goals in 21 collegiate matches, including seven in 12 matches in nonconference action. The sophomore also picked up an assist on Valpo's second goal versus UDM, the third time in her career she has had multiple goal involvements in a match.

Long Time Coming: Scoring chances don't come often for senior defender Daisy Boardman, as she had tallied just 17 total shots and just five on goal in the first 49 matches of her collegiate career. But match number 50 proved to be the charm, with Boardman giving Valpo its initial lead late in the first half at SIUE with a volley off a corner kick. It is the latest in terms of number of games played a Valpo player has scored their first goal since Chase Ray, who found the back of the net for the first time at Evansville Sept. 21, 2023 in her 57th career match.

Putting In Defensive Work: Given that team saves are not assigned to individual players in box scores historically, the rarity of what happened at SIUE would be near impossible to research, but it feels safe to say you don't see this happen very often. Not only did Boardman and Desiderio each score a goal, both players had goal line clearances which registered as team saves - Desiderio headed a ball off the line off a shot from a corner in the 25th minute, while Boardman did her best goalkeeping impression in an open net to keep a shot out in the 67th minute.

Making Debuts: Ivy Barba and Adria Schultz both earned starts in their first collegiate matches as freshmen at Eastern Illinois, with Schultz becoming the first Valpo freshman goalkeeper to start in her first career match since Nikki Coryell debuted in goal to open the spring 2021 campaign. Raco, Sophia Bonacci and Kinly Rodell all made their collegiate debuts off the bench as well at EIU. This past week, the Western Illinois match featured the Valpo debut of Salange Bell, who played the second half in goal before starting at keeper against Detroit Mercy. Also against WIU, Meja Blomkvist and Payton Rofe made their respective collegiate debuts.

Preseason Honoree: Coming off a rookie campaign in which she was named the Missouri Valley Conference Freshman of the Year, sophomore Kiara Desiderio was named to the Preseason All-MVC Team. Desiderio, who became Valpo's first Freshman of the Year since joining the Valley and was also a Second Team All-MVC choice, kicked off her Beacon career with a team-high seven goals in 2025 — tied for third-most by a freshman in program history. She ranked third in the MVC in goals and fifth in points (15), while also being tied for seventh nationally in goals by a freshman.

Who's Back: The Beacons return 16 players who saw action on the pitch last season, including eight regular starters. That group accounted for 73.4% of the team's minutes played by field players in 2025, including six players who played over 1,000 minutes - led by junior Ashley Trippeer, who played 1,397 minutes.

Who's Gone: Valpo graduated four seniors from last year's squad and had five other offseason departures. Notably, Second Team All-MVC honoree Molly O'Rear and starting goalkeeper Kate Sheridan were among the group of seniors.

Who's New: The Beacons welcome nine new players to the program this season: seven true freshmen, one Division I transfer and one Division III transfer.

New Faces in Goal: For the second time in three years, Valpo entered the season with a goalkeeping corps which has not played a minute at the Division I level. Two-time conference Goalkeeper of the Year Salange Bell joins the Beacons from Montclair State, while freshman Adria Schultz saw the first action of her collegiate career on opening weekend.

Good as Goddard: Sophomore forward Martha Goddard returns for her second season in the Brown and Gold after a strong rookie campaign. An MVC All-Freshman Team selection, Goddard tallied three goals and recorded five assists, the latter mark matching the program record for assists by a freshman. She was tied for second in the MVC in assists and tied for fourth on Valpo's overall single-season chart. Goddard became the first Valpo player to register an assist in three consecutive contests since 2017.

Looking Back at Last Year: Valpo posted a 5-8-4 overall record in 2025 and went 2-4-3 in MVC play, earning eight more points in the Valley than the previous season despite playing one fewer conference game and raising its winning percentage 162 points year-over-year. The Beacons scored 21 goals while surrendering 28 goals, improving their goal differential by 21 goals over 2024. This all came with the vast majority of field player minutes coming from underclassmen, as the 2025 Beacons had 41.2% of their field player minutes played by freshman and 42.3% by sophomores. Kiara Desiderio was named the MVC Freshman of the Year and was joined by Molly O'Rear on the Second Team All-MVC, while Martha Goddard joined Desiderio on the MVC All-Freshman Team.