ST. LOUIS – Bradley’s Gabi Haack has been named the Scholar-Athlete of the Year and headlines a group of five of the league’s top players named to the 2021 Missouri Valley Conference Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete First Team, as voted by the conference’s women’s basketball contacts. Haack, a first-time recipient, is one of two Bradley student-athletes to earn the Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor in women’s basketball, joining former Brave Lora Weber (2002). In all, 15 players were honored on the scholar-athlete teams.

With a 3.79 grade point average as an elementary education major, Haack is a two-time selection on the MVC Scholar-Athlete first team. Haack is joined on the first team by Drake’s Maddie Monahan, UNI’s Karli Rucker, Southern Illinois’ Makenzie Silvey and Valparaiso’s Shay Frederick.  

Second team selections include Loyola’s Allison Day and Ellie Rice, Illinois State’s Mary Crompton, Missouri State’s Brice Calip and Southern Illinois’ Abby Brockmeyer.  

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 32 Valley student-athletes met the nomination criteria for scholar-athlete honors in 2021.