AUSTIN, Texas - Becca Hittner (Urbandale, Iowa) and Sara Rhine (Eldon, Mo.) of the Drake University women's basketball team have been named to the 2018-19 Google Cloud Academic America teams selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), the organization announced Monday, March 11. Rhine was selected to the first team while Hittner was tabbed to the third team. Drake is the only program with two student-athletes on the 2019 academic All-America teams. Jan Krieger and Connie Newlin in 1982 are the only other Drake teammates to earn academic All-American honors in the same year.
 
Rhine, who owns a 4.00 GPA in elementary education, is a Google Cloud Academic All-American for the second-straight season after being picked to the third team in 2018. On the court this year, Rhine ranks second in the league behind Hittner in scoring at 18.7 points per game. She leads the conference in field goal percentage at 60.9, ranks second in rebounding at 8.4 and is eighth in free throw percentage at 79.2. Rhine was the 2018 MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the 2018 MVC Elite 17 award winner. She is the first Bulldog to be named academic All-America in back-to-back seasons since Tricia Wakely in 1995 and 1996.
 
Hittner, who holds a 3.96 cumulative grade point average in marketing, is scoring a league-best 19.9 points per game. Her name is among the MVC leaders in several other statistical categories, including three-point percentage (39.9, 3rd), field goal percentage (48.4, 4th), free throw percentage (81.6, 5th) and rebounding (5.2, 14th). This is the first Academic All-America honor for Hittner, who last season was named to the 2018 All-MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team and is a five-time MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Week honoree.
 
Eight of the 15 members of the Google Cloud Academic All-America® Division I Women's Basketball teams sport a perfect 4.0 GPA. The five members of the first team have an average GPA of 3.99, with the complete15-member women's team averaging a 3.93 GPA. Lindsay Whorton (2008) was the last academic All-American for Drake. Hittner and Rhine are the 13^th and 14^th Bulldogs all-time to garner academic All-American honors.
 
Drake, the 2018 MVC regular season champion, starts play at the MVC Tournament Friday at 12 p.m.