Drake women's basketball: Bulldogs picked to win Missouri Valley Conference

The Drake women’s basketball team rolled through the Missouri Valley Conference schedule last season, suffering just one loss on the way to a regular-season conference crown.

The Bulldogs are expected to have a similarly successful season during the 2024-25 campaign.

The Bulldogs, the defending regular-season champions and two-time defending conference tournament champions, are the preseason pick to win the MVC, the league announced Tuesday.

Drake earned 566 total points and received 39 of 48 first-place votes in the poll. Northern Iowa was picked to finish second while Belmont was picked to finish third.

It’s a huge honor for the Bulldogs, who are coming off a strong 2023-24 campaign that saw them go 29-6 overall and finish with a 19-1 mark in MVC play. With several key contributors returning, the Bulldogs could do even more damage this season.

Point guard Katie Dinnebier, the reigning MVC Player of the Year, was named the preseason player of the year. She was joined on the preseason all-conference first team with teammate Anna Miller and Northern Iowa’s Grace Boffeli and Maya McDermott.

Missouri Valley Conference women's basketball preseason poll

• 1. Drake
• 2. Northern Iowa
• 3. Belmont
• 4. Murray State
• 5. Missouri State
• 6. UIC
• 7. Illinois State
• 8. Valparaiso
• 9. Indiana State
• 10. Southern Illiniois
• 11. Bradley
• 12. Evansville

Tommy Birch, the Register's sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He's the 2018, 2020 and 2023 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Drake women's basketball: Bulldogs picked to win Missouri Valley Conference