State Farm MVC Tournament medalist Stacey Miller of Illinois State and MVC Golfer of the Year Olivia Lansing of Drake highlight the 2009 MVC Women’s Scholar-Athlete First Team, announced by the league office today.  A total of seven student-athletes earned first-team scholar-athlete honors, and two others earned honorable-mention status.  Of those nine student-athletes, five also earned all-conference honors.

 Four student-athletes are repeat selections to the league's scholar-athlete unit.  Bari Erais of Bradley, Lansing and Miller were first-team scholar-athlete picks in 2008, while Krista Hrdlicka of Wichita State was an honorable-mention picks last year.  This year's first team consists of Erais, Lansing, Miller, Hrdlicka, Laura Harris of Illinois State, Kayley Bodine and Breanne Smith of Indiana State.  Honorable-mention selections include Vandi Gooch of Evansville and Megan Bartlett of Wichita State.

 The criteria for the MVC scholar-athlete team parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for academic ESPN the Magazine All-America voting.  Nominees must have at least a 3.00 cumulative grade point average (4.0 scale), while the student-athletes must have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institutions and must have participated in at least 50 percent of her team’s rounds or played at the State Farm MVC Championship.

 In addition to the seven first-team selections, an additional two student-athletes received honorable mention selection, by virtue of receiving a minimum number of votes.  A total of 29 student-athletes were nominated for women’s golf scholar-athlete honors.  Golf sports information directors in the conference voted for the award.

 Illinois State won the Missouri Valley Conference championship, April 17-19, at Panora, Iowa.