Coming off of its third postseason appearance in the last five seasons, the Valpo volleyball team has been picked to finish in sixth place in the Missouri Valley Conference in 2023, according to preseason polling of the conference’s head coaches.

The Beacons accumulated 73 points in the polling to come in at sixth position, outpacing Illinois State by two points. UNI claimed seven of 12 first-place votes and nipped Drake by two points for the top spot in the poll.

Valpo enjoyed another successful campaign last season, winning 22 matches — the program’s 17^th 20-win season in Carin Avery’s 21 seasons as head coach. The Beacons finished in the top half of the MVC standings and have now done so in each of their six years in the conference — the only Valley team to do so all six years. Valpo earned its sixth postseason appearance under Avery and its third in the last five years as it received an at-large bid to the 2022 NIVC.

The Beacons return plenty of experience from last year’s squad, as 12 of 17 letterwinners are back this year, including four starters plus the libero. In all, 98% of the assists, 89.3% of the digs, 62.7% of the blocks and 60.9% of the kills from last season are back in 2023.

Among the returnees are sophomore libero Emma Hickey, who set Valpo and MVC records for digs by a freshman last year as she racked up 735 digs to lead all D-I freshmen. She ranked fourth nationally with 5.70 digs/set while moving into fourth place in Valpo history and sixth in MVC history for digs in a season.

Senior middle Mallory Januski leads the returnees up front after enjoying a breakout 2022 campaign. Januski posted 225 kills on .353 hitting last season, setting a program record for single-season hitting percentage. Defensively, she tallied a team-high 122 blocks, seventh-most by a Valpo player in the 25-point era.

Valpo opens the 2023 campaign at the EIU Volleyball Invitational, with first serve of the Beacons’ first match coming at 10 a.m. next Friday, August 25 versus Akron.