ST. LOUIS – The Drake University women's basketball team is the favorite in the 2018-19 Missouri Valley Conference Preseason poll for the third-straight year, the league office announced Thursday morning.
Drake, which has finished undefeated each of the past two MVC regular seasons and tournaments, has all five starters returning and its top nine scorers as it vies for a three-peat in 2018-19.
Junior Becca Hittner (Urbandale, Iowa), the 2017-18 Jackie Stiles MVC Player of the Year, is the 2018-19 MVC Preseason Player of the Year. Redshirt junior Sara Rhine (Eldon, Mo.