ST. LOUIS – Four student-athletes from the Drake University women's basketball team were selected to the Missouri Valley Conference Women's Basketball All-Conference teams, the conference announced Wednesday, March 7.
Sammie Bachrodt (Wichita, Kan.),
Becca Hittner (Urbandale, Iowa) and
Sara Rhine (Eldon, Mo.), were named to the All-MVC First Team while
Maddy Dean (Jordan, Minn.) garnered All-MVC Honorable Mention accolades. Drake has a league-leading 47 first team all-conference selections in MVC history.
This is the second career All-MVC honor for Bachrodt, who was honorable mention last season. This season, she is averaging impressive stats across the board at 10.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 2.0 steals per game. Bachrodt, who was selected to the Preseason All-MVC First Team, leads the Valley in assists with 117 and is second in steals with 60. She has started all 96 games in her career and is No. 9 all-time at Drake in career steals with 195. Bachrodt was selected to the MVC All-Defensive Team for the second-straight season.
Hittner is a member of the All-MVC First Team for the second-consecutive season and joins former standout
Lizzy Wendell as the only Bulldogs to earn All-MVC First Team honors in each of their first two seasons. This season, Hittner has started all 30 games, leads the MVC in three-point percentage at 44.0 percent, ranks second in scoring at 15.7 points per game and third in shooting percentage at 49.2. Hittner, who was the 2017 MVC Freshman of the Year, raised her already impressive play to another level in league play this year. She led the Valley in free throw percentage at 95.7 and three-point shooting at 50.7 percent, narrowly ranked second in scoring at 16.0 points per game and was fourth in shooting percentage at 53.5 percent. Hittner is the first MVC player to post 50-50-95 shooting numbers in league play in 15 seasons. She is already No.1 all-time in three-point percentage at 47.7 at Drake and No. 2 all-time in career free throw percentage at 84.9.
Rhine, who was named MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year Tuesday, is on the All-MVC First Team for the first time in her career after being awarded honorable mention honors in 2016. This year, she has played in 28 games, averages 15.6 points per game (4
th in MVC) and 6.0 rebounds per game (9
th in MVC) and shoots a league-high 58.4 percent from the floor. Rhine, who played in just eight games in 2016-17 due to injury after being named the 2016 MVC Freshman and Sixth Player of the Year, tied Hittner for most 20-plus point games with six this season. She is already one of the most accurate shooters in program history with a 59.1 percent career clip, which ranks third all-time. Rhine needs to score just 30 more points to reach the 1,000-career point mark.
Dean, who averages 10.1 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game, missed all of the 2016-17 campaign due to injury, but has appeared in all 30 games this season and earlier this year scored her 1,000
th career point. Going into the MVC Tournament, Dean is one of just four active MVC players to score 1,000 or more career points. She has scored eight or more points in 22 games and leads the MVC in assists per game in league play at 4.1. Dean was the 2015 MVC Freshman of the Year and a member of the 2015 All-MVC First Team.
Wednesday's all-conference teams come after Tuesday's announcement of the MVC Scholar-Athlete teams that all four Drake student-athletes were selected to.
Drake is the top seed at this week's MVC Tournament at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline, Ill. The Bulldogs will play either No. 8 Valparaiso or No. 9 Loyola on Friday at 12 p.m.
