After winning its tournament opener on Sunday, the sixth-seeded Valpo volleyball team was eliminated by third-seeded UIC in second round action at the MVC Championship in Evansville, Ind. on Monday evening, as the Flames defeated the Beacons in straight sets (25-23, 25-20, 25-17).

How It Happened

• Valpo jumped out of the gates strong on Monday, scoring six of the match’s first seven points. The Beacons’ lead was still five at 8-3 before a 10-3 run from UIC gave the Flames their first lead of the match.
• Valpo evened the set at 14-14, 15-15 and 20-20 after the Flames’ run, but was unable to gain the lead outright again. UIC scored three straight after 20-20 to go up 23-20, but the Beacons countered with two in a row to close back within one. The teams traded sideouts to close the set, though, as UIC claimed the opener.
• UIC led throughout the early stages of set two and enjoyed a five-point advantage at 12-7 before the Beacons scored six of the next seven — including two kills from fifth-year Jillie Grant (Maumee, Ohio/Anthony Wayne) — to tie the frame at 13-all.
• The Flames came back with an 11-3 run to earn set point at 24-16. Valpo scored four in a row to keep the set alive, but on its fifth chance, UIC finished with a kill to go up 2-0 in the match.
• UIC controlled the third set from the jump and moved to within two points of the sweep at 23-10. But in typical Valpo Volleyball fashion, the Beacons kept fighting and reeled off seven points in a row — three of which came on kills by senior Kara Cooper (LaPorte, Ind./LaPorte) — to erase more than half the deficit before the Flames closed the match with back-to-back kills.

Inside the Match

• Valpo split two matches at the MVC Championship for its fourth consecutive tournament appearance.
• UIC hit .316 on Monday evening, just the second time this year an opponent hit better than .300 against Valpo — the other being UIC hitting .320 in the regular season finale.
• The Flames out-killed Valpo in Monday’s match, 44-32. The Beacons did enjoy a 31-28 edge in digs.
• Cooper and senior Miranda Strongman (Wolverine Lake, Mich./Walled Lake Central [LIU]) tied for team-high honors with seven kills Monday. Strongman did so on 15 swings with no errors, hitting at a .467 clip.
• Freshman libero Emma Hickey (Granger, Ind./Penn) led all players with 16 digs.

Inside the Season

• With 22 wins this year, the 2022 Valpo squad became the 17^th team in Carin Avery’s 21-year tenure as head coach to reach 20 victories.
• This year is also the 19^th time in Avery’s 21 seasons Valpo has finished with a winning record.
• The Beacons finished in the top half of the MVC regular season standings this year, the 20^th time in Avery’s 21 seasons the program has done so. Valpo is the only team to finish in the top-half of the MVC standings each of the last six seasons.
• Junior Mallory Januski (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) smashed Valpo’s single-season record with a .360 hitting percentage. The program’s previous 25-point era record in the category was .307 (Kelsey Victor, 2014), while the previous overall record was .334 (Nicole Schulz, 2006).
• With 120 blocks on the season, Januski also moved into seventh place in the 25-point era for rejections.
• Strongman also surpassed the previous 25-point era record for hitting percentage as she swung at a .308 clip, now fourth-best in program history overall.
• The Valpo and MVC single-season records for digs by a freshman now stand at 722 after Hickey’s 16-dig performance on Monday. That mark puts Hickey in fourth place in Valpo’s 25-point era, fifth place overall at Valpo and seventh place overall in the MVC single-season record books.
• Junior Victoria Bulmahn (McCordsville, Ind./Mt. Vernon) cracked the top-10 in the 25-point era at Valpo in service aces with 31, good for ninth.
• As a team, Valpo registered 152 service aces this year, the fourth-best program total in the 25-point era, and the Beacons tallied 281.5 blocks, tenth-most overall in program history.