Regular-season champion Southern Illinois highlights the 2024 Missouri Valley Conference softball awards, as Saluki student-athletes earned four of the league's top honors, including Most Valuable Player (Jackie Lis), Most Valuable Pitcher (Maddia Groff), Freshman of the Year (Groff) and Coaching Staff of the Year.  Bradley's Sydney Kennedy was voted by the league's head coaches as the league's Newcomer of the Year, and Murray State's Taylor Jackson has earned Defensive Player of the Year honors.

Most Valuable Player:  Jackie Lis, Southern Illinois
Most Valuable Pitcher:  Maddia Groff, Southern Illinois
Defensive Player of the Year:  Taylor Jackson, Murray State
Newcomer of the Year:  Sydney Kennedy, Bradley
Freshman of the Year:  Maddia Groff, Southern Illinois
Coaching Staff of the Year:  Southern Illinois (Jen Sewell, Mary Jo Firnbach, Katie Griffith)

The league's Most Valuable Player is SIU's Jackie Lis.  She ranked second in the MVC in batting with a .362 average.  Her 48 runs scored is a league-best and her 34 RBI ranks fifth in the Conference.  Lis had a .489 on-base percentage this season, which ranks No. 2 in the MVC.  Her teammate Maddia Groff earned both the league's Most Valuable Pitcher and Freshman of the Year award.  Groff led the MVC in a host of categories, including complete games (17), earned run average (0.70), shutouts (9), strikeouts (220) and wins (28).  Her 28 wins leads the nation and ties SIU's single-season mark for pitching victories and also ranks sixth-best all-time in MVC history.  Her .070 ERA ranks third-best this century in the MVC for a single season.

Bradley's Sydney Kennedy earned the league's Newcomer of the Year award.  She leads Bradley with a .341 batting average, and she's among the team leaders with 22 runs batted in this year.  She is among the MVC's best on the mound, too.  She tops the Braves with her 2.05 ERA and 1.23 WHIP, while recording an 18-11 record while hurling 197.2 innings with 177 whiffs.

The MVC Defensive Player of the Year is Murray State's Taylor Jackson.  She is second in the nation in runners caught stealing (17) and is the current Murray State career record holder in CSB with 44 all-time.

Southern Illinois, led by head coach Jen Sewell, claimed its fifth regular season MVC Championship and first since 2010 this year.  The Salukis have now won three MVC trophies over the last four seasons with a pair of tournament titles (2021, 2023) and now a regular-season title in 2024 for their ninth overall.   The Salukis won the regular-season title with a 23-4 league mark (four games better than second-place UNI), and the Salukis enter this week with a 39-9.  Only 16 teams in MVC history have won more than 40 games in a season, and SIU is looking to become the first 40-win team in the league since Drake won 43 games in 2019.








2024 ALL-MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE SOFTBALL TEAMS
 
FIRST TEAM
C           Bella Wilkerson, Illinois State
1B         Isabella Henning, Indiana State
1B         Kayla Ulrich, Missouri State
2B         Delainey Bryant, Illinois State
2B         Abi Chipps, Indiana State
3B         Olivia Krehbiel, Missouri State
SS          Nicole Hughes, Belmont
SS          Jackie Lis, Southern Illinois
OF         Annie Mueller, Missouri State
OF         Alexis Pupillo, UNI
OF         Elizabeth Warwick, Southern Illinois
P            Maddia Groff, Southern Illinois
P            Samantha Heyer, UNI
P            Maya Johnson, Belmont
P            Jenna Veber, Murray State
DP/UT   Adisyn Hopkins, Illinois State
DP/P     Sydney Kennedy, Bradley




SECOND TEAM
C           Brenna Blume, Belmont
C           Taylor Jackson, Murray State
1B         Sidney Jones, Southern Illinois
2B         Destiny Lewis, Drake
3B         Rylie Hamilton, Southern Illinois
SS          Kennedy Shade, Indiana State
OF         Emma Austin, Southern Illinois
OF         Hailey Cowing, UIC
OF         Regi Hecker, Valparaiso
OF         Addison Masching, Illinois State
OF         Madison Parks, UNI
OF         Makayla Rice, Drake
P            Molly Hoekstra, Drake
P            Paige McLeod, Illinois State
DP/UT   Addison McElrath, UNI
DP/UT   Chloe Merced, Missouri State
DP/P     Emma Dighton, Drake
 



ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM
OF         Baie Ensio, Belmont
1B         Bailey Sample, Bradley
1B         Addie Lightner, Drake
P            Sydney Weatherford, Evansville
1B         Larisa Villa, UIC
3B         Jayden Standish, Illinois State
2B         Abi Chipps, Indiana State
2B         Kelsie Lewis, Missouri State
C           Taylor Jackson, Murray State
2B         Taylor Hogan, UNI
OF         Elizabeth Warwick, Southern Illinois
2B         Alexis Johnson, Valparaiso