HELENA, Mont. -- Washington State University rising senior Taylor Mims was named the female winner of the Little Sullivan Award Saturday night in Helena, Mont., honored for her accomplishments as a Cougars volleyball player.
 
The Little Sullivan award is Montana's adoption of the national AAU Sullivan Award and been awarded annually since 1955. The national award honors James E. Sullivan, the founder of the Amateur Athletic Union.
 
The criteria for the award states, "Qualities of individuals nominated should include athletic excellence, leadership, character, sportsmanship, and ideals of amateurism. In addition to those qualities from the national award, those nominated for the Little Sullivan Award must be from Montana."
 
Other female finalists included Olympic freestyle skiers Maggie Voison from Whitefish and Darian Stevens from Missoula, and Gonzaga University basketball player Jill Barta from Fairfield.
 
Mims is a 6-3 opposite hitter from Billings, Mont., who was a 2017 All-Pac-12 First Team selection after being a 2016 Pac-12 Honorable Mention honoree as a middle blocker. Mims was also named to the 2017 and 2016 PrepVolleyball.com All-America Honorable Mention and the VolleyballMag.com All-America Honorable Mention Teams. She was a team co-captain and the Cougars statistical leader, leading WSU to its second consecutive NCAA Championship Tournament Second Round appearance. Mims' 4.17 kills per set and 4.75 points per set, both sixth-best in Pac-12, are 30th and 26th, respectively, in NCAA. She had 28 kills and 79 attacks in the 3-1 win NCAA First Round win over Florida State to lead all players in the 2017 NCAA tournament. In that same match Mims also had a career-high 22 digs and 31.5 points. Her 599 points in 2017 was 12th-best in the NCAA. During the Pac-12 season, Mims' 4.38 kills per set and 4.95 points per set were both are second-best in conference. Her statistics from the 2017 season and their rankings in WSU all-time include 525 kills (3rd), 1533 attack attempts (1st), 4.17 kps (7th), 599.0 points (2nd), and 4.75 pps (4th). In WSU career rankings Mims has 899 kills (23rd), 2410 attacks (19th), 2.63 kps (26th), .120 hitting percentage (19th), 49 solo blocks (t-10th), 327 block assists (10th), 376 total blocks (t-9th), 1.10 bps (14th), and 1161.5 points (6th). In the summer of 2017 Mims won a Gold medal and named to All-Tournament team at CNT-Europe team at 13th Annual Global Challenge in Croatia.
 
Mims will embark on a European trip with the Washington State volleyball team May 16-27. She will then will train and compete July 4-15 on the Collegiate National Team-Europe squad, one of three teams within the U.S. Collegiate National Team program. The CNT-Europe team will compete in the 14th Annual European Global Challenge, July 10-13, in Pula, Croatia, after training and friendly matches in Europe.