Valpomag

Alumni Turnout High for Horizon League Games

From left: J.J. Eschenburg '07, Tyler Pagano ’07, Tairyn Grosso ’07, and Mark Wolka '07 are among the alumni who attended a Valpo men’s soccer game at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill., last fall.

The 2007-’08 sports season at Valparaiso University was unlike anything experienced in the past 25 years.

That’s the number of years Valpo had been a member of the Mid-Continent Conference. But when the university decided to join the Horizon League this past July, teams welcomed the new challenge, and alumni turned out in full force to support their Crusaders.

Some 61 percent of all Valpo alumni reside in the five states encompassed by the Horizon League—Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan.

The first Horizon League contest was a September men’s soccer game against Loyola at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill., home of the Chicago Fire.

“It was a big boost to the team to arrive and find a Valpo Alumni Association tailgate party taking place next to the stadium,” says Mark LaBarbera, director of athletics at Valpo. “The coaches and student-athletes truly enjoyed the opportunity to meet other members of the Valpo family, and it was a great encouragement to the team to have a cheering section bigger than the home team Ramblers. Our teams look forward to these types of alumni gatherings in other Horizon League cities.”

From December through February, more than 500 alumni and friends attended eight gatherings in conjunction with Valpo men’s basketball games in Horizon League cities. Some 75 people attended viewing parties of the men's basketball game against Butler that was televised on ESPN2 on Feb. 5.

In November, the women’s volleyball team advanced to the Horizon League championship game, but came up one match short, falling to the second-seeded Vikings of Cleveland State. It was the fifth consecutive year that the team has reached its league championship match.

In October, Valpo hosted the 2007 Horizon League cross country championships, the first Horizon League championship for Valpo in any sport, at Sunset Hills Park in Valparaiso. The women’s cross country team was led by junior Laura Rolf of Rochester Hills, Mich., who won the Horizon League individual title while also earning a top-50 finish at the NCAA championships for the second straight year.

Visit valpo.edu/athletics for team schedules and valpo.edu/alumni/events for alumni gatherings in your area.

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Alumni Turnout High for Horizon League Games

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