LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Vanguard women's basketball grabbed the first Pacific West Conference trophy in school history recently, and now gets more spoils added to its resume.  The PacWest released the All-Conference awards today, and the Lions were handed two big awards, as Kaylee Byon was named the Player of the Year and Russ Davis was announced as the Coach of the Year, the first wins for Vanguard in either category.  Byon also landed on the First Team All-Conference, where she was joined by Emma Schaaf, with Micaela Hanning standing on the Third Team.  The three All-Conference players equal last year's number for VU, with Schaaf as the only repeat winner on the Vanguard ledger.
 
Byon transformed from a Second-Team All-Conference selection in 2024-25 at Point Loma to the Player of the Year with a First-Team nod in 2025-26.  Byon started and played in every game for the Blue and Gold and upped her point per game rate from 9.5 as a junior to 12.6 in her final campaign, and she is on pace for the most points in her career in a single season.  Her shooting percentages from the field took a boost, as the guard shot 45.1% from the floor and 34.8% from beyond the arc.  She hauled in 117 rebounds, 29 more than last year, and she eclipsed her assist total by three, as her 162 hopped her 159 mark at PLNU.  Her hallmark was being the distributor for the Lions, as she finished second in the PacWest in assists, second in assists per game (six), and rocked a league-best +2.9 assist-to-turnover ratio.  Entering the PacWest Tournament, Byon is third in the nation with her +2.9 mark and is fifth in assists and assists per game in Division II.
 
Elsewhere, Byon placed 11th in the PacWest in points and 12th in scoring average.  Her shooting percentage was good for 14th, while her free-throw percentage (85.1%) slotted into fourth.  She ended third on VU in steals and was second to Schaaf in the scoring and field goal categories.  She had a season-high 25 points against her former school, one below the 26 she scored as a career-high as a Sea Lion.  She has five entries on the list for most assists in a single game this year in the PacWest, with 12 at home against Dominican being tied for second and her best of the year.  She has averaged 30.3 minutes per game and logged 42 minutes at home in the Biola overtime thriller, rarely leaving the court in the second half onward. 
 
Schaaf moved up to the First Team after landing on the Third Team as the Freshman of the Year in 2024-25.  Offensively, Schaaf added almost 100 points to her tally from her freshman year, as she went from 290 to 378, good for an average of 14 points per game (up from 11.2 in 2024-25).  Schaaf led the Lions in points, points per game, free throws made (67), rebounds (183), offensive boards (63), defensive rebounds (120), and blocks (50).  Of the three VU players who made the All-Conference list, Schaaf had the best field goal percentage (45.4%), though that was good for fifth on the team.  The forward had three double-doubles, with her 13 rebounds at Menlo being her highes.  Schaaf had 19 games in double figures, and her high was the 30 she deposited at home against Dominican, which is her current career best.  That performance also clocked in tied as the eighth-most points scored in a single game in the league this campaign.  Her five blocks against Menlo to finish the season were tied for seventh in a single game, and she was named the PacWest Player of the Week on February 3.
 
On the conference leaderboard, Schaaf finished sixth in the regular season in points per game and points scored, ninth in rebounds per game (6.8), 11th in total rebounds, eighth in offensive boards, 11th in shooting percentage, and third in blocks and blocks per game (1.9).  Schaaf ranks 32nd in blocks in DII and 33rd in blocks per game entering her first PacWest Tournament.
 
Hanning took a Third Team selection on debut for the Blue and Gold, as she started in all but three games and never missed a contest for Vanguard as a freshman.  She played the most minutes of anyone on the team (859, 31.8 per game), ending seventh in the conference in minutes per game.  Hanning shot at a 45.8% clip from the floor, topping Schaaf by 0.4, placing fourth in the lineup and 10th in the league.  Hanning was a sniper for the Lions, as she hit 44 of her 112 attempts for a team-leading 39.3% rate from downtown, pacing Vanguard in conversations and ending second in triple attempts.  She placed third in the PacWest in three-point shooting percentage, was 11th in treys made, and average of 1.6 triples made per contest placed Hanning in 11th in the league.  She snagged 116 rebounds as a rookie, third on VU and good for a tie with Byon at 4.3 rebounds per game.  She finished just behind Byon in assists with 95, placing sixth in the league in assists and in assist-to-turnover ratio at +1.4 (good for 85th nationally).  With a team-high 60 steals, Hanning placed seventh in steals and steals per game in the PacWest and had six in the game at Chaminade for her season-high.  Her 25 points at home against Westmont is her best scoring performance, with a whopping 14 helpers at home against Hawaii Hilo coming close to setting a PacWest single-game record while being the most in a single game across the conference this season.
 
This is the first Coach of the Year award for Davis in the PacWest, giving him 13 in total after racking up 12 in the Golden State Athletic Conference.  Davis won a regular-season title for the 14th time across both leagues, and he has started his PacWest tenure finishing second and first, respectively.  Entering the PacWest Tournament, Davis holds an all-time record of 717-198, with a 34-8 record in the PacWest.  With a 22-5 mark this campaign, Davis climbed over 20 wins for the third time in the past four seasons and has not finished below second over those four runs.
 
Only two teams scored 70 or more points against the Blue and Gold this year, with one of them being the home game against APU that went to overtime.  Opponents were held to less than 60 points on 15 occasions in 2025-26 and VU holds the best scoring margin in the league entering the tournament at +16.6.  His squad owns the third-best offense in the league at 72.4 points per game, and the second-best defense, holding foes to 55.9 points per game.  In a PacWest record for the program, the squad was named the Team of the Week four times in 2025-26.
 
Davis has eight GSAC Tournament crowns in the office, and could add the school's first PacWest Tournament trophy to his shelf this weekend.  With Vanguard in fourth in the regional rankings that came out recently, the Lions could be on track for a school-first appearance in any NCAA Tournament with a good showing at PLNU on Friday and Saturday.