2008 MVC All-Conference Awards

For the second day in a row, University of Evansville women’s basketball players Rebekah Parker, Shannon Novosel, Courtney Felke and Ashley Austin have been honored by the Missouri Valley Conference, as all four garnered either all-conference or all-defensive team honors on Wednesday.

Parker headlined UE’s award winners on Wednesday, being named to the MVC’s all-conference first team for the second year in a row.  She becomes just the third Purple Ace to earn back-to-back first team all-MVC honors since Evansville joined the league in 1994, and her three all-Valley honors (honorable mention in 2006) are the most of any player in UE’s 13 years in the league.

Parker earned first team all-MVC honors after leading the Purple Aces to a share of the MVC regular-season title with a team-best scoring average of 14.6 points per game.  Overall, Parker ranked fifth in the league in scoring during the regular-season, and was just one of two players league-wide to rank in the Valley’s Top 15 in scoring, rebounding, assists, and steals.

Joining Parker on the Valley’s all-conference team are junior forward Shannon Novosel and senior guard Courtney Felke.  Novosel garnered second team all-MVC honors on Wednesday after a break-out junior campaign in which she ranked second on the team in scoring at 11.3 points per game and first in rebounding at 6.2 caroms per contest.  Novosel stepped up in Valley play to rank 14th in the league in scoring at 12.3 points per game, while shooting 43.4 percent from the floor and 39.2 percent from three-point range--the 10th-best mark in the league in Valley play.

Felke, meanwhile, earned honorable mention all-Valley honors for the second year in a row on Wednesday after leading the league in three-point field goals made this season with 67.  She has continually ranked among the nation’s leaders in three-point field goals made and three-point accuracy all season long for UE, and finished the regular-season ranked third on the team in scoring at 10.7 points per game.  Felke will enter this week’s State Farm MVC Tournament play needing just four three-point field goals to tie the UE career record, and overall, she ranks 17th in Valley history.

Also being honored on Wednesday was junior guard Ashley Austin, who was named to the MVC’s All-Defensive Team.  Austin becomes just the third Purple Ace to earn MVC All-Defensive Team honors, joining Parker and former 2002 MVC Defensive Player of the Year Latasha Austin.  Ashley Austin currently ranks fourth in the Valley in steals per game at 1.83, and needs just six more steals to post one of the top 10 single-season theft totals in school history, as she has swiped 53 steals this year.

The three all-conference honorees and one MVC All-Defensive Team selection are the most at Evansville since 2000, when UE also placed three players on the all-conference list and one player on the all-defensive team.  Evansville, 19-10 overall and 13-5 in the MVC, will open up State Farm MVC Tournament play on Friday night, as the second-seeded Purple Aces will take on the winner of #7 Northern Iowa and #10 Wichita State at 6:05 p.m. in the St. Charles, Missouri Family Arena.  Every UE game of the State Farm MVC Tournament can be heard live on 91.5 F.M.-WUEV.