Phillips named Big Sky MVP

After running through conference play undefeated, Montana women's tennis ace Kelsey Phillips earned the Big Sky's top prize on Wednesday, voted by coaches as the 2026 Most Valuable Player and a unanimous first team all-conference selection, the league announced Wednesday.

Phillips, a native of Excelsior, Minnesota, went a perfect 8-0 in the Big Sky on the No. 1 court for the Griz, and did it in dominating fashion, winning six of those eight matches in straight sets against the top line player from each team in the league. Overall, she capped her stellar year at 12-6 in singles and 8-9 in doubles.

En route to her unblemished Big Sky record, Phillips took down some of the best in the conference in recent years, including Reese Walker of No. 50 Sacramento State, who was last year's Big Sky Tournament MVP. She also beat Northern Arizona's Patrycja Niewiadomska in straight sets, now a four-time All-Big Sky selection and 2026 unanimous first team all-league pick, a two-time conference player of the week this season, and the 2023 conference Freshman of the Year.

That's on top of beating the line one players from Utah State, South Dakota, Idaho, Eastern Washington, Portland State, Idaho State, and Montana State, among others.

Phillips now becomes just the fifth Grizzly in program history to earn Big Sky MVP honors along with Hailey Murphy in 2024, Haley Driver in 2014, and Vanessa Castellano, who won it twice in 1996 and 1997.

She caps her UM career at 24-26 in dual singles and 15-9 in Big Sky singles over the course of three seasons and is now one of the few players in league history to bookend her career with all-conference individual honors.

During Montana's regular season championship run in 2024 she was named the Big Sky's Freshman of the Year – the first Grizzly to ever earn that award. She now becomes the third female in conference history to win Freshman of the Year and MVP honors, joining Chiara Tomasetti and Gina Dittmann of Northern Arizona.

As a freshman she also earned second team All-Big Sky honors in singles and doubles and was named the league's Player of the Week for the first time earlier this month after sweeping the top players from NAU and ISU. She is also a two-time (and likely to be three-time) Academic All-Big Sky pick and an ITA Scholar Athlete.

Her unbeaten season in 2026 is a 180 from where she finished in 2025 when she went through a sophomore slump at 3-11 and 1-7 in the conference, a letdown after a Big Sky Freshman of the Year run where she went 9-9 and 6-2.

"It's an unbelievable story, and it's one of those situations where you saw someone make a ton of changes to become successful. She changed physically – took up running and got herself in the best shape of her life, made recovery a priority and was way more serious in the weight room. Then she attacked the mental side of the game, got to know herself, made the decision to become more coachable and adapted her game," said head coach Steve Ascher.

"She had a trifecta of different things she was working on that made her an unbelievable player at the end of the season. She was beating everyone pretty easily, and they're not easy matches. So, it's just a testament for anyone out there – if you're willing to figure out the direction you want to go, willing to take a hard look at yourself and make changes, a lot is possible in this world."

2026 Big Sky Women's Tennis Award Winners
MVP: Kelsey Phillips, Montana
Freshman of the Year: Camila Maldonado, Sacramento State
Coach of the Year: Sophie Breault, Sacramento State

All-Big Sky Singles First Team
Kelsey Phillips, Montana*
Patrycja Niewiadomska, Northern Arizona*
Lou Baudouin, Sacramento State*
Millie Day, Idaho State
Irene Riva, Sacramento State
Angel Bean, Montana State

* - unanimous first-team selection

All-Big Sky Singles Second Team
Andrea Noguera, Northern Arizona
Natalie Rainke, Northern Arizona
Marta Giglio, Portland State
Camila Maldonado, Sacramento State
Veronika Zarovna, Idaho State
Zoe Pradel, Eastern Washington

All-Big Sky Singles Honorable Mention
Emmy Richards, Idaho State
Elen Jantacova, Northern Arizona
Palina Saulevich, Sacramento State
Stefanya Shalakhova, Idaho State

Honorable Mention must receive at least 3 votes

All-Big Sky Doubles First Team
Irene Riva/Palina Saulevich, Sacramento State*
Stefanya Shalakhova/Victoria Zarovna, Idaho State
Marta Giglio/Hana Abdelhamid, Portland State

* - unanimous first-team selection

All-Big Sky Doubles Second Team
Angel Bean/Nia Gelashvili, Montana State
Elen Jantacova/Natalie Rainke, Northern Arizona
Patrycja Niewiadomska/Andrea Noguera, Northern Arizona

All-Big Sky Doubles Honorable Mention
Camila Maldonado/Reese Walker, Sacramento State
Lou Baudouin/Emilija Pranyte, Sacramento State

Honorable Mention must receive at least 3 votes

University of Montana Athletics

Related News

Players Mentioned

Kelsey Phillips

Related Videos