ST. LOUIS – Drake’s Sara Rhine has been named the Enterprise Bank & Trust Scholar-Athlete of the Year and headlines a group of six of the league’s top players named to the 2020 Missouri Valley Conference Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete First Team, as voted by the conference’s women’s basketball contacts. Rhine, a three-time recipient, is one of two Drake student-athletes to earn the Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor in women’s basketball, joining former Bulldog Lindsay Whorton (2008). Rhine becomes the first player in MVC women’s basketball history to win the award three times. In all, 16 players were honored on the scholar-athlete teams.

With a 4.00 grade point average as a graduate student working on her Masters in Counseling, Rhine is a third-time selection on the MVC Scholar-Athlete first team. Rhine is joined on the first team by Drake’s Becca Hittner, Bradley’s Gabi Haack, Illinois State’s Lexi Wallen, Missouri State’s Alexa Willard and Southern Illinois’ Makenzie Silvey. 

Second team selections include Bradley’s Chelsea Brackmann, Drake’s Maddy Monahan, Loyola’s Abby O’Connor, UNI’s Karli Rucker and Valparaiso’s Grace Hales. 

The criteria for the scholar-athlete team balloting parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for the 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 3.30 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 35 Valley student-athletes met the nomination criteria for scholar-athlete honors in 2020.