MOLINE, Ill. – Illinois State’s Paige Robinson has been named the 2023 Jackie Stiles MVC Player of the Year presented by Great Southern Bank. Robinson finished second in The Valley in scoring (18.8 ppg), was fifth in three-point field goal percentage (40.1%) and ninth in free throw percentage (79.3%). Robinson becomes just the fourth Redbird player to earn the league’s Player of the Year honor, joining Susan Wellman (1988), Pam Tanner (1989) and Kristi Cirone (2007, 2008, 2009). In her first season at Illinois State, Robinson is also this year’s Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Year. The graduate guard, who joined the Redbirds after a storied career at Drury, has made her impact on Illinois State. She is the sixth Illinois State player to win MVC Newcomer of the Year, including the fourth in six seasons under head coach Kristen Gillespie. Robinson sits fifth all-time in active career leaders across all NCAA divisions in scoring, with 2,562 points in her collegiate career. She becomes only the second player in Valley history to earn Newcomer of the Year honors and the Jackie Stiles Trophy in the same year (Kareema WIlliams of Wichita State in 1992).
