Ivana Vukas made a great first impression at the beginning of her varsity soccer career.
Benet coach Gerard Oconer recalls Vukas’ impact during the 2023 season opener.
“We knew right from her very first game her freshman year against Wheaton Academy that she was going to be a difference-maker for us for her entire time here at Benet,” Oconer said. “She didn’t actually score in that game, but you could just tell that she was our most dynamic player, especially the first half of the game.
“I’m sure Wheaton Academy was thinking, ‘Who is this kid?’”
Vukas, a senior forward who has committed to Dickinson, is a kid who combines great athletic ability, humility and intelligence with a willingness to go her own way. She helped the Redwings advance to the Class 2A state championship game during her freshman year, after which they moved up to 3A.
Over the next three seasons, Vukas emerged as the quiet leader for the Redwings, who remained among the state’s elite teams. Benet is 64-17 during her career, including 23-0 in East Suburban Catholic Conference play.
“She means everything to this program,” Benet junior forward Audrey Eiseman said. “She’s the basis for all of us younger players of what we want to be like with how hard she works for everything, how well of an example she sets for everybody. I think all of us just want to play like her.”
This season, Vukas has six goals and a team-high 10 assists for the Redwings (13-1, 5-0), who beat St. Charles North 3-0 on Thursday and have earned the No. 3 seed in the Naperville Central Sectional. She has 40 goals and 34 assists in her career and was ESCC player of the year in 2025, when Benet won its sixth straight conference title.
But Vukas’ importance goes beyond numbers to the advice she has given her teammates.
“She said just have fun with it,” Eiseman said. “Everybody takes soccer so seriously, and I think for high school season we’re able to have fun with it and work hard.
“So we all work together, we all want this team to do well, and I think she just kind of tries to instill that.”
That togetherness makes playing high school soccer enjoyable for Vukas.
“It’s really different than club,” she said. “It’s a more fun atmosphere, and it’s a nice break every spring to play for your school. I feel like the girls all like to play together.”
Playing with a selfless leader makes that easier.
“She is probably one of the most unselfish players that we’ve coached, almost to a fault,” Oconer said. “With her incredible mobility, we have to encourage her to not necessarily be more selfish, but just be more assertive as far as the goal-scoring aspect. She creates so many dangerous opportunities for us with her technical ability on the ball, her speed, her quickness.
“You could plug her anywhere on the field, and she would do well.”
One example of that came during a regional final last year. Oconer had Vukas play defensive midfielder and credited her play for Benet’s 1-0 upset of top-seeded Metea Valley.
Vukas isn’t afraid to upset people’s perceived notions of where she should go and what she should do.
“She is one of those players that just is comfortable forging her own path,” Oconer said. “She has an older brother that went to Lyons Township, played soccer there, but she decided that she wanted something different, so she came to Benet, which is very fortunate for us.”
Several years later, Vukas again went against the grain, passing up some Division I schools to commit to Dickinson, a Division III college in Pennsylvania.
“I feel like I don’t really need the validation of anybody else,” she said. “I’m just confident in myself. I know that academics come first, so I’m not really worried about going to a DIII school.
“I know I can play DI, but it’s fine. I’m not going to go pro anyway, so might as well get an education.”
After attending Benet, Vukas has a good idea where she can get a good education.
“At this point, I like small community schools where it feels tight-knit,” she said. “I feel like you don’t get that a lot in DI.”
Vukas plans to major in biology and pursue a career in the medical field.
“My dad is a doctor, and then I like doing stuff hands-on,” she said. “I can’t sit behind a desk all day, so I want to do something active that’s helping people.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
