ST. LOUIS – Drake’s Sara Rhine has been named the Enterprise Bank & Trust Scholar-Athlete of the Year and headlines a group of five of the league’s top players named to the 2018 Missouri Valley Conference Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete First Team, as voted by the conference’s women’s basketball contacts. Rhine becomes the second Drake student-athlete to earn the Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor in women’s basketball, joining former Bulldog Lindsay Whorton (2008). In all, 16 players were honored on the scholar-athlete teams.

With a 4.00 grade point average in Elementary Education, Rhine is a first-time selection on the MVC Scholar-Athlete first team. Rhine is joined on the first team by Drake’s Becca Hittner, Missouri State’s Liza Fruendt, Southern Illinois’ Kylie Giebelhausen and Valparaiso’s Dani Franklin. 

Second team selections include Drake’s Maddy Dean, Evansville’s Hannah Noe, Indiana State’s Ashli O’Neal and UNI’s Ellie Howell and Kennedy Kirkpatrick.

The criteria for the scholar-athlete team balloting parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves, have played at least 75-percent of a team’s games, and must carry at least a 3.20 GPA (on a 4.0 scale). 
    
Student-athletes must also have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institution (true and redshirt freshmen are not eligible) and must have completed at least one full academic year at the institution.

A total of 33 Valley student-athletes met the nomination criteria for scholar-athlete honors in 2018. 

First Team                                               Year              GPA        Major
Dani Franklin, Valparaiso                         Senior            3.57        Elementary Education
Liza Fruendt, Missouri State                    Senior            3.73        Administrative Management
Kylie Giebelhausen, Southern Illinois       Senior            3.81       Exercise Science
Becca Hittner, Drake                                Sophomore    3.96        Marketing
Sara Rhine, Drake                                    Sophomore    4.00        Elementary Education

Second Team                                            Year                GPA    Major
Maddy Dean, Drake                                    Junior            3.52    Actuarial Science and Finance
Ellie Howell, UNI                                        Junior              4.00    MBA Graduate Program
Kennedy Kirkpatrick, UNI                            Senior            3.83    MBA Graduate Program
Hannah Noe, Evansville                            Graduate         4.00    Health Services Administration
Ashli O’Neal, Indiana State                        Sophomore    3.71    Biology

Honorable Mention                                    Year                GPA    Major
Sammie Bachrodt, Drake                            Junior                3.50    Finance
Jessica Cerda, Loyola                                   Graduate        3.67    Social Work
Meredith Hamlet, Valparaiso                        Junior                3.50    Public Relations
Becca Jonas, Drake                                    Junior                3.93    Digital Media Production
Katie Salmon, Loyola                                    Senior               3.88    Statistics    
Anneke Schlueter, Bradley                            Senior               3.57    International Studies