Valpo (4-4-1, 0-0-0 MVC)
Sunday, Sept. 20 - Drake (5-3-1, 0-0-0 MVC) - 1 p.m.

Next Up in Valpo Soccer: The Valpo soccer program opens the second season Sunday afternoon on Brown Field as the Beacons host Drake to begin the MVC slate.

Previously: The Beacons enter MVC play with momentum, coming off a pair of wins last weekend, as Valpo took down Oakland, 4-1, and then defeated Southern Indiana on Senior Day, 2-0. The Beacons earned two weekly awards from the MVC office in the process, as Kiara Desiderio was named MVC Player of the Week and Daisy Boardman MVC Defender of the Week.

Looking Ahead: Valpo plays its fourth consecutive home match next Sunday afternoon, as the Beacons welcome Indiana State to town.

Following the Beacons: This week's matches will be broadcast live on ESPN+, 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 145-143-54 (.503) 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 is 3-9-2 all-time against Drake, with the Bulldogs earning a 5-1 victory in Des Moines last season in the last meeting between the two programs. The most notable of Valpo's three wins came in the 2023 MVC Tournament title match in Des Moines, a 1-0 win which gave the Beacons the tournament crown.

Scouting the Opposition: Drake closed nonconference play with a 5-3-1 record, but enters MVC action winless in its last two, falling 2-0 at South Dakota and drawing 1-1 with Omaha last time out. The Bulldogs have limited their opponents to five goals over those nine matches, while on the attack, Angela Gutierrez has scored a team-high six goals. Drake is the reigning MVC regular season champion and was picked atop the 2026 MVC preseason poll.

Starting Valley Play: Valpo is in search of three points to open MVC play in Sunday's match, something which has eluded it each of the last three years (0-2-1 in openers). The Beacons' last victory in its conference-opening match came in 2022, a 1-0 win at UNI which kickstarted their run to the regular season title. Incidentally, this marks the third straight season which Valpo has kicked off the Valley slate against Drake.

Nonconference Success: With a pair of wins last week, the Beacons closed out their nonconference slate at .500 with a 4-4-1 record. This is the fifth time in the last seven seasons that Valpo has finished .500 or better in the nonconference schedule.

Putting Away Goals: With six goals over its two victories last week, Valpo bumped its season total to 16 goals entering Valley play. It is the program's highest goal total entering its first conference match since the 2005 side tallied 17 goals prior to its Mid-Con opener. The Beacons scored multiple goals in six of their nine nonconference matches.

Home Sweet Home: It will be nearly a month between road trips for Valpo, as the Beacons closed nonconference play with a pair of home matches before opening the MVC schedule with two matches on Brown Field.  It is the first time Valpo will have played four straight home matches since playing five in a row back in the Eastgate Field days in September and October 2008. The 28-day stretch between games away from home will be the longest such stretch in program history.

Ki Does It Again: Sophomore Kiara Desiderio was named the MVC Player of the Week for the second time in her career after a big week on the attack last week. After entering the week with two goals and one assists in the season's first seven matches, Desiderio knocked home a pair of goals in the win over Oakland and then was involved with both goals in the win over USI with a goal and an assist. She has now had multiple goal involvements in three matches this season and five for her career, including three career braces.

Another Brace for Martha: Sophomore Martha Goddard recorded her second brace of the season in the win over Oakland and followed it up with a goal against Southern Indiana, accounting for both match-winning goals in her three-goal weekend as she boosted her season total to six goals. Desiderio and Goddard became the first Valpo teammates to both score twice in a single match since Kendall Brown and Sarah Jewell each scored a pair Oct. 8, 2006 in a victory over Lewis.

First-Time Honoree: While Desiderio earned her third career weekly honor from the MVC office with her Player of the Week accolade, senior Daisy Boardman earned a weekly award for the first time as she was recognized as the MVC Defender of the Week. Boardman played 170 of a possible 180 minutes at right back as the Beacons surrendered just one goal over their two wins, while adding her first assist of the season on the attack versus Oakland. Boardman is just the third Valpo player to be honored as Defender of the Week since the Valley broke goalkeeper and defender into two separate weekly awards starting in 2023.

Multiple Weekly Winners: Desiderio and Boardman teamed up to mark the seventh time multiple Valpo players have earned MVC weekly accolades in the same week since Valpo joined the Valley. It is the first such instance since Sept. 26, 2022, when Addy Joiner, Nikki Coryell and Nicole Norfolk swept the player, goalkeeper and defender weekly honors.

Stopping Shots: Junior Salange Bell held a clean slate in her 135 minutes in goal last week in the pair of wins. Bell stopped three shots after entering at halftime of the win over Oakland, and followed against USI with her second clean sheet of the season, making six saves to blank the Screaming Eagles. Bell ranks second among qualified MVC goalkeepers with an .806 save percentage and ranks fourth with a 1.17 GAA. Over her last three starts, Bell has two shutouts and her two highest save totals of the season.

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 found the back of the net eight times over a three-match stretch, 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.

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.

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.