ST. LOUIS - Missouri State's Kyle Hiebert has been named the MVC Men's Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year and headlines a group of 17 student-athletes named to the 2021 Missouri Valley Conference men's soccer scholar-athlete first team and honorable mention team, announced by the league office today. 

With a 4.00 grade point average in Accounting, Hiebert is a five-time selection on the scholar-athlete first team and three-time Men's Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year.  Hiebert was recently named the MVC Defensive Player of the Year for the third-straight season for his efforts on the field.   

Missouri State and Drake each boast a league-high three members on the first team, while Bradley, Loyola and SIUE each had two honorees.  Evansville had one first-team selection. Six honorees are repeat first-team selections from a season ago, including Bradley's Rasmus Smidtslund, Drake's Jared Brown, Loyola's Billy Hency, and Missouri State's Michael Creek, Kyle Hiebert and Kian Yari.

The 13 member first-team features student-athletes from eight different countries, representing Canada, England, Finland, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway and the United States. 

Among the 17 honorees, five boast a perfect 4.00 GPA, while another five honorees have a GPA of 3.80+.

The Valley's scholar-athlete team is voted on by the league's soccer sports information directors.

The criteria for the all-MVC honor parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves with at least a 3.30 cumulative grade-point average (on a 4.00 scale). Also, students must have participated in at least 75 percent of the regular season matches or played in the league tournament. Student-athletes must have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institution (true freshmen and redshirt freshmen are not eligible) and must have completed at least one full academic year at their institution.