By Daijah White / Sports Editor

Last season, Valley’s women’s basketball marked the first winning season for the program in 20 years after they went 18-6 in conference play and had 22 wins overall. The Vikings’ season kicked off on November 4 with eight new faces added to this season’s roster. 

Head Coach Ben Lister noted the loss of four starting players from last season, 

“Obviousl,y we graduated four seniors that started for us and played a lot of minutes, so anytime you’re a good program, you have players behind them that you think are capable, they’ve just got to step into their roles and continue to move the program forward.”

After a remarkable last season, the Vikings are looking to continue that growth. Lister said he feels like last season was the cornerstone to build the program. 

Giavana Moore was a standout player and captain for the Vikings last season. Now that she has graduated along with three other seniors, new captains have been picked for the 2025-2026 season. Lister announced at Friday’s practice that the team voted on three seniors for their captains. 

“I like for my leaders to be the kids that set the tone in practice,” Lister said. “The ones that hold everyone else accountable because they are gonna do the same thing for themselves, because when you have that kind of leadership, you have a chance to be successful.”

Sara Ortiz transferred into Valley last year as a junior. This year, she will lead the Vikings as a Captain along with Maleigha Landers and Sophie Sullivan. All three of these players have been with the program long enough and understand the overall goals and what it takes to reach those goals. 

Lister said this year the goals are no different: to have the highest team GPA in the conference and hang banners. The Vikings are also looking to take another step forward and have that national tournament appearance they were one game away from last season. 

“I think we are looking to build and see what things we didn’t do right last year, build off of that,” Ortiz said. “Also, to win the conference for sure and see if we can make the national tournament.”

She said energy is the biggest thing for the team this season, and that will help them achieve their goals. 

“So maybe if we are not having the best day or not feeling good, you know for sure that you are gonna have someone on the sideline cheering for you,” Ortiz said. 

While there are some returners, the roster also highlights eight new Vikings. Jessica Reeter is one of those newcomers who transferred in from North Central Missouri Community College. She said she committed to Valley, knowing the accomplishments the Vikings had last year. 

“They were one game away from going to the national tournament, which really shows that they’re a well-performing team,” Reeter said. 

Along with playing for a team that made a historical run last season, she said she is also looking forward to playing under Coach Lister. Reeter is already on board with the program and has her eyes set on chasing banners this upcoming season.