BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Western Illinois senior basketball forward Mia Nicastro has been selected as the Ohio Valley Conference Female Athlete of the Year for 2025-26 in voting by school administrators and Conference staff.

Nicastro was named the 2025-26 OVC Women's Basketball Player of the Year after guiding the Leathernecks to a share of the OVC regular season championship and its first OVC Tournament Championship. She was also one of five finalists nationally for the 2026 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award.

The forward averaged 24.1 points and 9.8 rebounds per game while recording 16 total double-doubles. She led the OVC in nine different stat categories and ranked in the top 50 nationally in 13 categories, including fourth in points/game, sixth in points (770), eighth in field goals made (282), 11th in defensive rebounds/game (8.2), 13th in free throws (180) and free throw percentage (89.6), 18th in double-doubles, 31st in rebounds (315), 34th rebounds/game, and 45th field goal percentage (51.8). 

Nicastro was named to the OVC All-Tournament Team, where she scored 21 points and had 10 rebounds in WIU's title game win over Lindenwood (after posting 16 points and 11 rebounds in a semifinal win over Southeast Missouri). She had 21 points in the team's NCAA Tournament game at North Carolina, marking her 25th 20-point game this season, 

Following the season she played in the Lilly Women's College All-Star Game during the Final Four weekend.

Nicastro is the first Western Illinois student-athlete to earn the honor since the Leathernecks joined the League prior to the 2023-24 season.

The OVC first awarded a Female Athlete of the Year honor in 1981.