CHICAGO – The Drake University women's basketball team plays two road games in the final week of the 2017-18 regular season. Drake (21-7, 16-0 MVC) visits Loyola (7-20, 5-11 MVC) Thursday night with tipoff at Gentile Arena scheduled for 7 p.m. before it closes the regular season at Valparaiso (12-15, 5-11 MVC) Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. Following this week, the Bulldogs are the No. 1 seed for the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, March 8-11, at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline, Ill. where they will start defense of their 2017 MVC Tournament title, March 9, at 12 p.m.
 
Drake clinched its second-straight outright MVC title with its win over Illinois State Sunday at the Knapp Center. It is the seventh MVC title in program history. The Bulldogs won back-to-back MVC titles for the first time since the 1996-97 and 1997-98 seasons. The Bulldogs have won 20 or more games each of the past four seasons. The last time the program had four-consecutive 20-plus win seasons was 1996-97 to 2001-02 when it had six-straight 20-plus win campaigns. Drake is tied with Missouri State for the most 20-plus win seasons in league history with 16 since 1982-83.
Drake, which is already the only Valley team to go undefeated in regular season play after last year's 18-0 run, is two wins away from doing it for the second-straight season. The Bulldogs already own the longest MVC era regular season winning streak and Sunday's win over the Redbirds is the 38th-straight MVC regular season win which broke SIU's all-time Gateway Conference streak record of 37-straight games set during the 1984-85 and 1986-87 seasons.
 
Sophomore Becca Hittner (Urbandale, Iowa) earned her second career MVC Player of the Week award Monday for her performances against Bradley and Illinois State. In MVC play this season, Hittner is averaging the second-best scoring mark in the league at 15.5 points per game while shooting a league-high 50.0 percent from three-point range, 53.4 percent from the floor (4th in MVC), and league-best 95.2 percent from the free throw line. She is the first Valley player in 15 seasons to post a 50-50-95 shooting line since Lisa Verhoff of Indiana State did it in 2002-03. Hittner and her teammate Sara Rhine (Eldon, Mo.) are two of the frontrunners for the Jackie Stiles MVC Player of the Year award. Rhine is averaging 15.3 points and 6.0 rebounds per game while leading the Valley in field goal percentage at 57.6. She is a three-time MVC Player of the Week winner.