ST. LOUIS – Becca Hittner and Sara Rhine of the Drake University women's basketball team were named to the All-Missouri Valley Conference First Team, the MVC announced Wednesday, March 11.
 
Drake has had a league-leading 52 first-team all-conference selections in program history. Hittner is on the All-MVC First Team for the fourth-straight season while Rhine is on it for the third-straight year after earning MVC Honorable Mention honors her freshman season. Hittner is just the eighth MVC women's basketball player to be selected all-conference first-team four times. Former Bulldog standouts, Carla Bennett, Wanda Ford and Lizzy Wendell are part of that exclusive group. Rhine along with Caitlin Ingle and Jill Martin are the only three Drake players to be selected all-conference first-team three times.
 
Hittner leads the Valley in scoring for the third consecutive season at 18.9 points per game. Her free throws (160), three-point total (70) and three-point percentage of 41.2 are all tops in the MVC. Hittner's shooting percentage of 45.4 ranks fourth while her career-high rebounding average of 6.4 is ninth. She has recorded a career-high six double-doubles this year, scored in double figures in 28-of-30 games and tallied a league-leading 12 20-plus scoring performances this year.
 
Rhine has scored in double figures in all 30 games this season, paces the Valley in field goal percentage at 65.0 and field goals made (214) and is second in scoring behind Hittner at 17.7 points per game. She has tallied 10 double-doubles this season, ranks third in the MVC in rebounds (244) and fourth in rebounding average at 8.1 per game.
 
Hittner and Rhine, who each surpassed 2,000 career points this season, are just one of two sets of active teammates in NCAA Division I that have scored 2,000 or more points. The Drake pair join Oregon's Sabrina Ionsecu and Ruthy Hebard in the exclusive club.
 
It has been a good week for the Drake teammates. Monday, Rhine earned her second-straight CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team selection while Hittner was named to the Academic All-America Second Team after earning third-team honors in 2019. On Tuesday, the pair were selected to the MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team while Rhine collected her third-straight MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year award.