MOLINE, Ill. — The Missouri Valley Conference named its women’s basketball Player of the Year award after the first player to win it three seasons in a row.

Just like Jackie Stiles, Drake senior Becca Hittner has done it thrice.

Hittner became the third player in MVC history to win the Jackie Stiles Payer of the Year award three years straight, an honor that was presented a few short hours after the Valley announced that it had canceled the MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament.

Stiles, who played for Missouri State, won in 1999, 2000 and 2001 the award that was later named after her. Illinois State’s Kristi Cirone won in 2007, 2008 and 2009, and Hittner just completed the third threepeat in the award’s history.

Hittner led the MVC in scoring average at 18.9 points per game while also ranking ninth in rebounding (6.4) while shooting 41.2 percent from 3-point range. She averaged 21.1 points per game in conference play while pulling down 7.2 boards and shooting 46.9 percent from distance.

It’s the third year in a row that Hittner, a Dowling Catholic grad, led the Valley in scoring.

This also marks the 11th time the MVC Player of the Year award has been given to a Bulldog, which is a league-high.

Illinois State’s Juliunn Redmond was named the MVC’s Newcomer of the Year as well as the Sixth Player of the Year after transferring from Tallahassee Community College and averaging 13.7 points per game and a team-leading 7.2 rebounds per game off the bench for the Redbirds. She started just one game but led Illinois State with 54 steals and became the third-straight Redbird to win Newcomer of the Year — the first time in the award’s history it has gone to a player from the same school three years in a row.

Redmond is the first player in conference history to win both the Newcomer and Sixth Player awards in the same season.

Missouri State’s Brice Calip was presented with the Defensive Player of the Year award after racking up 38 steals, 11 blocked shots as well as a league-leading 2.34 assist-to-turnover ratio. Calip commonly draws the top defensive assignment for the Bears and still averages just 1.5 personal fouls per game.

Freshman of the Year honors went to Evansville’s Abby Feit, who led the Purple Aces in scoring and ranked ninth in the Valley at 13.7 points per game. She was third in the MVC in rebounding (8.4) and second in blocked shots (1.4).

Missouri State first-year head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton has been named the Valley’s Coach of the Year after guiding the Bears to their 13th regular-season title. She’s only the second head coach in conference history to win the regular season title outright in their first year at the helm.