At the NCAA Championships, his 53.63 swim in the 100-breast prelims established a new school record and his third career All-American performance for the standout sophomore. Swimming in the finals, he posted a time of 53.78 in the 100-breast to finish 14th overall at the NCAA Division I Men's Swimming and Diving Championships. Vali set a new school record in the 200-IM and another first in the 200-breast for his fourth and fifth career BIG EAST title. He helped set the 200-medley relay, the 400-medley relay and the 400-free relay school records. Just outreached in the 200-breast, Vali finished second in that event As leadoff leg in the 800-free relay, helped the Cardinals to a fourth place finish. He was voted U of L's Sophomore Athlete of the Year.

He qualified for three events at the 2006 NCAA Championship hosted by Georgia Tech. He improved two spots from his preliminary swim with a 13th place finish in the 200-breaststroke at the 2006 NCAAs. He was 16th at the NCAAs in the 100-breaststroke. He won three events at the BIG EAST Championships, the only athlete to accomplish this. He had wins in the 100- and 200-breaststroke and touched first in the 200-IM for the Cardinals. He was named the University of Louisville Freshman Athlete of the Year.

Vali came to U of L from LPS Braila. He arrives with extensive international experience. As the Romanian national record holder in the 200-breaststroke, he swam a 2:15.20 LCM which ranked him in the Top 25 in Europe. In short course, he swam a 2:11.33 200-breast which is also the national record and ranks him 22nd in Europe a mark which he set in Vienna. At that same meet, in short course, he swam a 1:01.10 in the 100-breast which is the national record and ranks him 48th in Europe. Vali Preda gained an Olympic berth as a member of the Romanian 400-medley relay team when they qualified at the FINA World Championship in Melbourne, Australia. The team of Razvan Florea, Vali Preda, Stefan Gherghel and Octavian Gutu finished 8th with a time of 3:38.86. In 2006-07, Vali was ranked No. 21 in the 100-meter breaststroke in the world by FINA, the international governing board of swimming. In the summer of 2006, he swam at the European Championships in Budapest, Hungary where he helped set a new national record for Romania in the 4x100 meters medley relay. He was a crucial part of the Romanian 4 x 100-meters Medley Relay by splitting a time of 1:00.93 which was the sixth fastest breaststroke split at the Championships en route to establishing a new Romanian record. Preda finished 11th in the 28th Annual LEN European Championships with a time of 1:01.63, which is a personal best in the 100-meter breaststroke.