ST. LOUIS - Missouri State, the nation's 19th-ranked team and Missouri Valley Conference regular season champion, and Drake, the regular-season runner-up, have claimed the league's top individual honors, with the Bears' junior goalkeeper Alex Riggs taking the league's Defensive Player of the Year honors and Bulldogs' senior forward Garrett Webb being named MVC Player of the Year.  Riggs and Webb headline a list of 23 student-athletes named to the 2009 MVC All-Conference teams, selected by the coaches, and announced by the league office Thursday. The all-conference teams will be recognized at an awards banquet tonight in Des Moines, Iowa.

Riggs led Missouri State to its third-ever regular-season title (7-1-1 MVC), as the Bears finished out their schedule on a seven-game winning streak and enter this weekend's State Farm MVC Soccer Championship as the No. 1 seed.  A Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy candidate, Webb helped Drake to its second-consecutive double-figure wins season and the No. 2 seed in this week's State Farm MVC Tournament. The Bulldogs posted a 6-3-1 conference record and finished second in the regular-season standings for the second-straight season. Missouri State, along with Drake and third-place Creighton, the league's top three finishers combined to place 15 athletes on the first- and second-team all-conference squads. The Bulldogs and Bluejays placed a combined six players on the first- and second-teams, the most in the league. Missouri State, the tournament's No. 1 seed, was the only other school to place multiple players on the all-conference first-team with two players honored. Fourth-seeded Evansville tallied four players on first and second team.  A total of nineteen of the 23 first- or second-team honors are from the league's top four teams.

Webb is the first player in Drake history to win the league's top honor outright (Jesse Baker shared the honor with Missouri State's Ryan Anderson in 2005).  The forward is second in the league with nine goals scored, including five in MVC matches, and paced a Bulldogs attack that netted 37 goals in 19 matches.  In league play, he has accounted for nearly a point and a half per game, which leads the conference.  On the season, Webb leads Drake in goals (9), points (22), shots (41), shots on goal (20) and game-winners (2).

Eastern Illinois is the winner of the Valley's Fair Play Award, which is structured after the FIFA Fair Play honor.  It is awarded to the Valley squad that has the fewest penalty cards during conference play, as the Panthers' tallied just eight yellow cards.