The Prairie Stars placed three players on postseason lists as the Great Lakes Valley Conference announced its women's basketball all-conference and specialty award teams Wednesday.
Kayla Rice | First-Team All GLVC & All-Defensive Team
Junior guard
Kayla Rice earned First-Team All-GLVC and All-Defensive Team honors, highlighting a decorated season that further solidified her place among the program's all-time greats. During the 2025-26 season, the junior guard averaged 15.0 points per game while shooting 36.7 percent from the field and 39.2 percent from three-point range. She added 3.3 steals and 2.8 rebounds per contest while playing 28.4 minutes per game.
Rice is the program's career leader in both three-pointers made and steals and also holds the single-season and single-game steals records. She ranks among the top five scorers in program history.
Rice is now a three-time all-conference honoree after previously earning All-Freshman Team recognition in 2023-24 and Second-Team All-GLVC honors in 2024-25. The honor represents the highest all-conference recognition of her career to date.
Julia Mingus | All-Freshman Team
Freshman guard
Julia Mingus was named to the All-Freshman Team after an impressive debut season in which she played a major role for the Prairie Stars, averaging 28.2 minutes per game. Mingus was the most efficient three-point shooter in the Great Lakes Valley Conference this season and ranked among the top performers in NCAA Division II for much of the year. She averaged 13.0 points per game while shooting 43.9 percent from the field and 44.7 percent from beyond the arc.
Kennedy Osterman | All-Newcomer Team
Graduate guard
Kennedy Osterman earned All-Newcomer Team honors after joining the Prairie Stars as a transfer this season, providing leadership and scoring production. She averaged 12.9 points and a team-high 4.5 rebounds per game while shooting 40.1 percent from the field and 38.5 percent from three-point range.
Osterman recently collected both Women's Basketball Coaches Association/Division II Conference Commissioners Association National Player of the Week and GLVC Player of the Week honors after powering the Prairie Stars with strong performances on both ends of the court in her final weekend of college basketball.
GLVC James R. Spalding Sportsmanship Honoree
Freshman guard
Allison Wheeler was named the team's Great Lakes Valley Conference James R. Spalding Sportsmanship Award honoree. At the conclusion of the 2025-26 academic year, Wheeler will be nominated from among University of Illinois Springfield's female GLVC sport representatives for the conference sportsmanship award selection process.
The Prairie Stars finished the season 14-14 overall and 11-9 in conference play, narrowly missing qualification for the GLVC Tournament.
The postseason recognition caps a strong year for the Prairie Stars, who continued to build momentum with the leadership of head coach
Olivia Birt.
