St. LOUIS -- Missouri State's Emily Butters, Brianne Dixon and Lily Johnson were honored Tuesday (Nov. 22) by the Missouri Valley Conference for their performance on the court and in the classroom, earning spots on the MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team following a vote of the league's volleyball sports information directors.

Missouri State's libero in every set this season, Butters maintains a 3.92 cumulative grade point average while studying exercise and movement science. The Richmond, Texas, native ranks fifth in the MVC with 4.26 digs per set, and currently sits in 18th place on Missouri State's career digs list with 1,083 as the first sophomore in school history to reach 1,000 career digs. The Eagle Bank MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Week on Nov. 8, Butters has at least 10 digs in 30 matches, passing the 20-dig barrier eight times with a high of 26 against UNI on Oct. 29.

Dixon owns a perfect 4.00 GPA while pursuing a cell and molecular biology degree. The defensive specialist from Springfield has started 26 of MSU's 32 matches this season and played in all but one of the team's 121 sets, ranking fourth on the club with 272 total digs and a 2.27 average. The junior also has 11 service aces and 11 matches with at least 10 digs, with a high of 16 digs on three occasions. Dixon earned CoSIDA Academic All-District VI First Team honors earlier this month.

A repeat first-team selection, Johnson is a four-time MVC Player of the Week, three-time Eagle Bank MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Week, and a CoSIDA Academic All-District VI First Team member this season. She owns a 3.99 GPA in cell and molecular biology, and leads the MVC with 4.59 kills and 5.16 points per set while averaging 3.01 digs, 0.36 aces and 0.35 blocks with a .236 hitting percentage. 

The junior outside hitter from Wildwood, Mo., is currently on a school-record streak of 43 consecutive matches with at least 10 kills, recently moved to No. 2 on MSU's career kills list with 1,670, and became the sixth member of the Bears' 1,000-kill, 1,000-dig club. She also joined the MVC's career top 10 in total kills last week and has 21 kill-dig double-doubles on the season.

A total of 47 student-athletes were nominated for the Valley's scholar-athlete team. The criterion for the honor parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves with at least a 3.20 cumulative GPA (on a 4.00 scale). Also, students must have participated in at least 75-percent of the regular-season matches. Student-athletes must have reached sophomore status in both athletic and academic standing at their institution (true freshmen and redshirt freshmen were not eligible).

First Team
Abby Barrow, Southern Illinois 
Emily Butters, Missouri State
Brianne Dixon, Missouri State
Kayla Haneline, UNI
Amie Held, UNI
Kyla Inderski, Drake
Lily Johnson, Missouri State
Jaelyn Keene, Illinois State
Abbie Lehman, Wichita State
Alie Line, Illinois State
Maddy Moser, Loyola
Mikaela Raudsepp, Wichita State
Morgan Reardon, Loyola 
Bree Spangler, Indiana State

Honorable Mention
Katy Dudzinski, Wichita State
Erica Haslag, Bradley
Emily Hiebert, Wichita State
Dani Mostrom, Wichita State
Courtney Pence, Illinois State
Capris Quaites, Drake
Meg Viggars, Southern Illinois