Coming off its second straight Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Tournament championship and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament, reigning MVC regular season champion Drake is expected to lead the conference once again. The Bulldogs topped the 2024-25 women’s basketball preseason poll in a vote consisting of head coaches, sports information directors and media members.
Drake senior guard Katie Dinnebier, reigning Jackie Stiles MVC Player of the Year, was selected as the Preseason Player of the Year and highlights the Preseason All-Conference First Team, joined by teammate Anna Miller, UNI’s Grace Boffeli and Maya McDermott, Missouri State’s Lacy Stokes and Murray State’s Katelyn Young. Dinnebier and Young have also been named to the 2025 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Watchlist, presented by Her Hoop Stats.
The Missouri Valley Conference will begin conference play on Dec. 29 with all 12 teams in action. After eight years at Vibrant Arena at The MARK in Moline, Illinois, the 2025 MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament will be held March 13-16 at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana. This begins a three-year rotation with Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa (2026) and Vibrant Arena at The MARK (2027).
Missouri Valley Conference 2024-25 Preseason Poll
1. Drake (39)
2. University of Northern Iowa (UNI) (6)
3. Belmont (3)
4. Murray State
5. Missouri State
6. University of Illinois Chicago (UIC)
7. Illinois State
8. Valparaiso
9. Indiana State
10. Southern Illinois
11. Bradley
12. Evansville
* ( ) first-place votes
Preseason All-MVC First Team
*Kate Dinnebier, G, Sr., Drake
Grace Boffeli, F, Sr., UNI
Maya McDermott, G, Sr., UNI
Anna Miller, F, Sr., Drake
Lacy Stokes, G, Sr., Missouri State
Katelyn Young, F, Gr., Murray State
*Preseason Player of the Year
The coaches and preseason first-team players met with the media during a the Missouri Valley Conference virtual media day on Oct. 16. Here is a look at each team (in alphabetical order). Unless otherwise hyperlinked, player statistics are from Sports-Reference, Her Hoop Stats or team media notes.
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Belmont | Bradley | Drake | Evansville | Illinois State | Indiana State | Missouri State | Murray State | Southern Illinois | University of Illinois Chicago | University of Northern Iowa | Valparaiso
Belmont
2023-24 record: 26-9 (17-3 MVC, No. 2 in conference)
Head coach: Bart Brooks (eighth season)
Belmont head coach Bart Brooks believes the Missouri Valley Conference is tough enough to have multiple teams in the NCAA Tournament. And he sets up his non-conference schedule to put his team in a position that doesn’t solely depend on the outcome of the MVC Tournament Championship game.
“As we sit down as a staff, and obviously as a league, to try to figure out how we’re going to continue to move our program and our conference forward in the landscape of college basketball, I think we’ve got to put ourselves in position to play these games,” he said. “We have some great coaching in our league, the styles of play, we’ve got really, really talented players, so we’re just trying to put ourselves in a position that we can go play against as many at-large, quality, caliber teams in the country as possible.”
The Power 5 teams Belmont will face in the non-conference season include Kansas State, Ohio State, Duke, Michigan, Mississippi State and Kentucky.
Brooks will rely on veterans Kendal Cheesman and Tuti Jones, as well as sophomore guard Jailyn Banks, the 2023-24 MVC Freshman of the Year who was injured at the end of last season.
“[Banks] had a really good offseason. She was back with us in June and didn’t miss any workouts the whole summer,” Brooks said. “It’s great to see her back. She’s confident; she’s strong and physically looks great.”
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Bradley
2023-24 record: 6-26 (2-18 MVC, No. 11 in conference)
Head coach: Kate Popovec-Goss (third season)
Despite finishing in the bottom of the Missouri Valley Conference the past couple of years, Bradley head coach Kate Popovec-Goss sees a hungry spirit in her team with eight newcomers, including five freshmen.
“Honestly, this has been my favorite fall as a head coach so far. The energy has been great; the juice is high,” she said. “I think what’s been so exciting for me as a coach is this team, they’re really green at times, but they’re also super duper spongy. They just want to take everything in. They want to do everything the right way.”
Popovec-Goss intentionally recruited freshmen and players from the transfer portal from winning programs.
“I wanted players that came from winning programs that understand what culture looks like, that have a competitive spirit,” she said. “So in all of our newcomers, that was a component that we found.”
Among the newcomers Popovec-Goss is most excited about are transfers Soleil Barnes, a senior guard from the University of Toledo, Amy O’Hara, a junior forward from George Mason University, and freshman forward Ellie McDermid from Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Drake
2023-24 record: 29-6 (19-1 MVC, No. 1 in conference)
Head coach: Allison Pohlman (fourth season)
With nine returners from last season’s regular season and tournament championship team, Drake looks to set the tone in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Head coach Allison Pohlman is appreciative of the preseason poll’s vote of confidence, but realizes living up to the expectations will take hard work.
“It’s a huge compliment because this league is very talented. The Valley is no joke; it’s gritty, it’s tenacious, and every single night you have to be ready to compete,” she said. “Keeping up that intensity ultimately is in the day-to-day, it’s in the details. It’s every single day showing up and wanting to put that uniform on and knowing that it’s got ‘Drake’ on the front.”
Pohlman’s first recruiting class is now in their senior year, including Preseason Player of the Year Katie Dinnebier and fellow Preseason All-MVC First Team selection Anna Miller. The duo discussed their goals for their senior year.
“We want to hang another banner. We’ve had two the past two years and the expectations are high, and honestly that’s an expectation of our program,” Dinnebier said. “Not only do we want to make it to the NCAA Tournament, now the next step is winning a game in the tournament … We’re really hoping to go out our senior year with a bang.”
“The NCAA Tournament has been some of my biggest learning experiences as a basketball player and as a person,” Miller said. “I feel like I learned a lot from last year’s loss and have all summer to work. I’m excited to put that knowledge and experience to the test.”
Evansville
2023-24 record: 2-18 (4-28 MVC, No. 12 in conference)
Head coach: Robyn Scherr (fourth season)
Evansville head coach Robyn Scherr is excited about working with her young team that consists of six freshmen, some of whom will see solid minutes this season.
“I just love coaching this team. They’re really, really competitive. We’re very young, so we have a lot of young moments, but this team competes,” she said. “This is a team that you can really challenge, you can push them to be their best … They’ve just brought a fresh competitiveness to all of this, and I really just enjoy being on the court with them every day.”
Several of the freshmen Scherr is excited about are guards Camryn Runner, Kylee Norkus and Kaiden Kreinhagen. Sophomore forward Maggie Hartwig has been developing her game after averaging 11.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game her freshman season.
“She just continues to grow as a player,” Scherr said about Hartwig. “One of the things that I have loved seeing from her is just her understanding of what it takes to be one of the best players. She really desires to be a great player and leader.”
Illinois State
2023-24 record: 22-12 (13-7 MVC, No. 5 in conference)
Head coach: Kristen Gillespie (eighth season)
With eight new players, Illinois State will have a fresh look this season. But the Redbirds will have the same focus they always do.
“We have a chance to continue to move the needle that we’ve been pushing the last seven years. And every year we’ve lost some big pieces, but we always find a way to kind of reinvent ourselves, and we’re looking forward to that challenge this year,” said head coach Kristen Gillespie, who signed a contract extension through the 2028-29 season.
A competitive non-conference schedule which begins with a two-game road swing at Northwestern on Nov. 6 and at Saint Louis on Nov. 12, will help prepare the team for the Missouri Valley Conference season and beyond.
“We tried to pick different teams that may mimic what we’re going to see in the Valley,” Gillespie said. “We have a lot of young women that have never been in this situation. So to get them out in front of good talent … I’m excited for the opportunity for this team to take a step forward and see what we can become.”
The Redbirds will be in Fort Myers, Fla., over the Thanksgiving weekend at the Gulf Coast Showcase, which also features preseason Top 25 teams No. 4 Texas and No. 16 West Virginia.
Indiana State
2023-24 record: 11-21 (6-14 MVC, No. 9 in conference)
Head coach: Marc Mitchell (first season)
In his first year as head coach at Indiana State, Marc Mitchell wants his team to get better day by day and build an identifiable culture for the program’s future.
“The players are getting to know who I am and what I’m about and what my expectations are,” he said. “There’s no escaping hard work. There’s no way to get around it.”
Prior to being named Indiana State’s 10th head coach in May, Mitchell had been head coach at the University of Indianapolis in the Div II Great Lakes Valley Conference since the 2022-23 season. He is looking forward to the competitiveness of the Missouri Valley Conference.
“I’m excited about competing. This coaching in this league is second to none. Some of these top players in this league are just tremendous basketball players. There’s a toughness in this league,” he said.
Missouri State
2023-24 record: 23-10 (15-5 MVC, No. 3 in conference)
Head coach: Beth Cunningham (third season)
Missouri State head coach Beth Cunningham is excited about the mix of veterans and newcomers on this season’s squad. After after a last-second shot from Drake lost the Lady Bears the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Championship game, the team is hungrier than ever for success this season.
“We’re a majority of a new team, but I do know that certainly the returners are hungry to get back and be in a position where hopefully it’s different the next time around,” she said. “We’ve got some really great veteran leadership and experienced kids that have been in our program, and you blend that with some new kids and new pieces that we’ve been able to add. It’s been a really fun group to work with.”
Cunningham will look to senior guard Lacy Stokes for leadership on and off the court. Stokes, who joined the Bears last season as a transfer from Division II Missouri Southern State University, turned heads and played her way onto the Preseason All-MVC First Team, averaging 12.8 points and 4.6 assists per game last season.
“I think just being able to build on what she did last year, she’s not going to be a surprise to anybody,” Cunningham said. “Everybody knows that she’s earned her stripes.”
Stokes has been working on her outside threes, expanding her passing and scoring off ball screens.
“You can’t just keep using the same stuff and not expect people to scout you and know those,” Stokes said.
Murray State
2032-24 record: 20-12 (12-8 MVC, No. 6 in conference)
Head coach: Rechelle Turner (eighth season)
In just their third year in the Missouri Valley Conference, Murray State is picked to finish in the top five of the conference. Aware of the expectations, head coach Rechelle Turner is also balancing a team with more newcomers than returners.
“Putting in a new system last year, and then feeling like we got somewhere with it, but then kind of starting over with the newcomers,” she said. “But we have a great list of returners that have been extremely helpful in making the newcomers understand the standards. The standard is ‘this is how we do things, these are the expectations, and we’re not going to accept anything less.’”
The Racers will again be led by forward Katelyn Young, a fifth-year graduate student who appears not only on the Preseason All-MVC First Team, but also on the 2025 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Watchlist.
“You can’t talk about her without talking about the person that she is. She’s the most selfless, humble, best player that I’ve ever been around; not even that I’ve ever coached, just that I’ve ever been around,” Turner said of Young. “She’s very mature on and off the floor which gives me a sense of self knowledge that she’s going to take care of the locker room, she’s going to take care of what needs to be done.”
Preparing for her final year in college, Young has been expanding her game.
“Last year I felt like I struggled with three-point, percentage wise. I could shoot it, but it wasn’t where I wanted it to be,” she said. “So, I’ve really got in the gym, shot a lot, and then also just still working on those post moves and just seeing what I can develop on top of everything.”
Southern Illinois
2023-24 record: 11-20 (6-14 MVC, No. 8 in conference)
Head coach: Kelly Bond-White (third season)
Though they are developing 10 new players, Southern Illinois head coach Kelly Bond-White says there will still be standard Saluki traits in this team.
“We’re still going to be a pressing team. We’re going to be a higher tempo team, but understanding the half-court game and executing a little bit better in the half court,” she said. “We went out and got a little more size … just being a little bit longer will give us an advantage where we had some people take advantage of us defensively, just backing us down because we were tiny on the perimeter.”
Along with signing sophomore guard Kayla Cooper from Big 12 champion Oklahoma and guard Jeniah Thompson, a graduate student from Wichita State, the Salukis staff went overseas to recruit several players, including forward Gift Uchenna from Nigeria and guard Alice Curman from Sweden.
“The class I bought in here my first year would have been a six-figure class if I tried to go recruit those Power 5 transfers. You just can’t do it right now with the budget that we’re on sometimes, or trying to build NIL,” Bond-White said. “So, I went overseas because I didn’t want to sacrifice quality. I wanted to get the same type of talent as we’re building this and be able to attract people more regionally.”
University of Illinois Chicago (UIC)
2023-24 record: 18-16 (10-10 MVC, No. 7 in conference)
Head coach: Ashleen Bracey (third season)
After hitting the ground running this summer with a successful foreign tour in Spain, the University of Illinois Chicago Flames are ready for their third season in the Missouri Valley Conference.
“I would say the number one thing that we wanted, honestly, was to just give them an opportunity to get one step closer to becoming global citizens,” head coach Ashleen Bracey said of the foreign tour experience. “The number two goal was to build team camaraderie … I think we did that, and then just established with our five newcomers our system and sort of the bare bones of it and what it includes.”
Bracey will look for veteran leadership in Keimari Rimmer, sixth-year graduate student who joined the Flames last season after four years at DePaul.
“She’s somebody that impacts the stat line in every capacity.She led my team in steals, led my team in rebounds and was second in scoring … just an explosive athlete,” Bracey said. “She’s one of my best leaders. She’s got my back as a head coach; she really pushes the vision of our program to our younger kids.”
Graduate students Kristian Young, Jaida McCloud and Danyel Middleton will also provide leadership to the team.
“We have a player-led team. I approach them completely differently now than I approached them in year one and year two. They near run our practices. It’s such a cool position to be in as a head coach,” Bracey said.
University of Northern Iowa (UNI)
2023-24 record: 16-16 (14-6 MVC, No. 4 in conference)
Head coach: Tanya Warren (18th season)
With five returning seniors, University of Northern Iowa head coach Tanya Warren credits the program’s culture in keeping her team intact during the age of NIL deals and the transfer portal.
“I think it starts with the consistency of our staff. Our staff has been together for several years, and then we just have great leadership from these young women; they come in and they really form a friendship,” she said.
Two of the returning seniors, forward Grace Boffeli and guard Maya McDermott are on the Preseason All-MVC First Team for the second straight year. They are headed into the season with a determined attitude.
“I think we’ve always made it really, really close and end up falling short in the end. So, I think this year, with this core, we’re playing with a chip on our shoulder, and our word is ‘vengeance,’” McDermott said.
“It’s the five of us’ final year to kind of embrace it all. I think every day our mindset is just to enjoy every moment, whether that’s practice, lifting or games; just enjoy everyone with each other, because it’s going to go by quickly,” Boffeli said.
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Valparaiso
2023-24 record: 5-25 (4-16 MVC, No. 10 in conference)
Head coach: Mary Evans (seventh season)
With two new assistant coaches focused on the defensive side of the ball, Valparaiso head coach Mary Evans believes her team can pick up the offense naturally.
“These kids know how to play basketball and we’re trying to give them more freedom to get up and down the court quickly then just play together and not complicate it with a bunch of plays, and they seem to be buying in to that and having a lot of fun with it,” she said.
Evans will look once again to fifth-year senior guard-forward Leah Earnest to lead the team. Earnest started all 30 games last season, averaging 16.5 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game.
“She’s a different level type of competitor, and I think the thing that she spent a lot of time working on over the last year is how to be a better leader and how to connect with people that maybe aren’t quite as competitive as her, and how to find a way to meet them in the middle, to bring them along, to try to become as competitive as her, but not turn them off with maybe her disdain for losing,” Evans said.
