MOLINE, Ill. – Drake sophomore Becca Hittner (Urbandale, Iowa) has been named the 2018 Jackie Stiles Missouri Valley Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Year while junior Sammie Bachrodt (Wichita, Kan.) was tabbed the MVC Defensive Player of the Year and redshirt sophomore Sara Rhine (Eldon, Mo.) was selected the MVC Sixth Player of the Year for the second time in her career. Head coach Jennie Baranczyk was chosen the MVC Coach of the Year for the second-straight season. The four were presented their awards at a ceremony on the opening night of the 2018 MVC Tournament at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline, Ill.
 
Hittner is the second-consecutive Drake player to be honored as MVC Player of the Year after Lizzy Wendell won the award in 2017. Earlier this week, Hittner was selected to the All-MVC First Team for the second-consecutive season and joins Wendell as the only Bulldogs to earn All-MVC First Team honors each of their first two seasons. An excellent student, Hittner was chosen to the MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team and was named MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Week four times this year.
 
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 currently 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.
 
Hittner's MVC Player of the Year award is a league-leading tenth for a Drake player. She is part of an impressive set of former Bulldog stars who were named MVC Player of the Year. Wanda Ford (1985, 1986), Jan Jensen (1991), Kristi Kinne (1995), Tricia Wakely (1996), Kiersten Miller (1998), Rachael Hackbarth (2012), Kyndal Clark (2014) and Wendell (2017) have all claimed the league's top individual award. In just her second season, Hittner is the youngest of the group.


 
Bachrodt is the first-ever Drake player to be picked MVC Defensive Player of the Year. Earlier this week, she was named to the All-MVC First Team following All-MVC Honorable Mention accolades as a sophomore and being named to the MVC All-Freshman team her first season. This season, Bachrodt is averaging impressive stats across the board with 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 with Hittner, 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 has nabbed a career-high six steals in four career games. This week, Bachrodt was also selected to the MVC All-Defensive Team for the second-straight season and garnered her first career MVC Scholar-Athlete Honorable Mention honors.
 
This year, Rhine has played in 28 games, averages 15.6 points per game (4th in MVC) while shooting a league-high 58.4 percent from the floor and pulling down 6.0 rebounds per game (9th in MVC). Rhine's second career MVC Sixth Player of the Year award caps a week of multiple honors for her as she was named MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year and to the MVC Scholar-Athlete First and selected to the All-MVC First Team for the first time in her career. Rhine was named MVC Freshman and Sixth Player of the Year and earned All-MVC Honorable Mention accolades following her freshman season. Rhine, who played in just eight games in 2016-17 due to injury, tied Hittner for most 20-plus point games with six this season.
 
Rhine is one of the most accurate shooters in MVC and program history with a 59.1 percent career clip, which ranks third all-time at Drake and fifth all-time in the MVC. Rhine needs to score just 30 more points to reach the 1,000-career point mark. This season, Rhine was selected CoSIDA Academic All-District Team while collecting a league-high five MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Week awards.


 
Baranczyk guided Drake to its second-consecutive outright MVC regular season championship following the program's second-straight 18-0 record. No Valley team has ever gone undefeated in one regular season of league action and Drake is now the only program to go unscathed in two MVC seasons. The program has won a Gateway/MVC record 40 regular season games.
 
Baranczyk is the third Drake head coach to be selected MVC Coach of the Year joining Lisa Bluder (1995, 1997, 1998) and Lisa Stone (2001). Baranczyk, the sixth head coach in Drake women's basketball history, has a career record of 122-68 and reached 100 wins at Drake faster than any other head coach in program history. Baranczyk is the fifth coach in Valley history to have a career winning percentage above .700 in league games. Currently, Baranczyk sits fourth all-time in winning percentage with a career record of 79-29 (.731) in league contests, including an impressive 65-7 mark in the past four seasons. Baranczyk has the second-most MVC regular season titles among Drake women's basketball head coaches as she trails Bluder, who claimed three in her 10 seasons.
 
During her tenure, Baranczyk has had seven Bulldogs earn 19 All-MVC selections, seven named to the MVC All-Freshman team, four MVC Freshman of the Year winners, two MVC Player of the Year and Sixth Player of the Year winners and one MVC Defensive Player of the Year.
 
Drake is the top seed at this week's MVC Tournament and will play either No. 8 Valparaiso or No. 9 Loyola on Friday at 12 p.m.