NEW YORK – Seattle Storm forward Breanna Stewart has been named the 2018 WNBA Most Valuable Player, the WNBA announced today.  The three-year veteran earned her first MVP award and became the 10^th different player in the last 10 years to win the honor.  She is the second winner for the Storm, joining three-time MVP Lauren Jackson (2003, 2007 and 2010).

Stewart (372 points) received 33 of 39 first-place votes from a national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters.  Dallas Wings center Liz Cambage finished second with 231 points, including four first-place votes.  Washington Mystics forward/guard Elena Delle Donne received the other two first-place votes and was third with 206 points.  Players were awarded 10 points for a first-place vote, seven points for a second-place vote, five points for a third-place vote, three points for a fourth-place vote and one point for a fifth-place vote.

Behind the 6-4 Stewart, Seattle went a league-best 26-8 and earned the No. 1 seed in the 2018 WNBA Playoffs.  After earning a double bye to start the postseason, Seattle will host the Mercury in Game 1 of a best-of-five Semifinals series today at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

Stewart, the 2016 WNBA Rookie of the Year, ranked second in the WNBA in scoring (career-high 21.8 ppg), third in rebounding (8.4 rpg), seventh in blocked shots (1.44 bpg) and eighth in steals (1.35 spg) this season.  She established career highs in field goal percentage (52.9, 10^th in the WNBA) and three-point field goal percentage (41.5, eighth) and shot 82.0 percent from the free throw line.

The two-time WNBA All-Star scored a Storm-record 742 points and led the WNBA with 22 games of 20 or more points.  Stewart has the most points (2,019) and 20-point games (58) in the WNBA over the last three seasons.

In July, Stewart was named the WNBA Western Conference Player of the Month after leading Seattle to a 9-2 record.  Her month featured back-to-back games in which she scored 35 points in a victory against the Wings and recorded 30 points in a win against the Chicago Sky.

Stewart, who turns 24 tomorrow, was selected by the Storm with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 WNBA Draft.  At the University of Connecticut, she won four consecutive national championships and became the first player in college basketball history to be named the NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player four times.

In honor of being named the 2018 WNBA Most Valuable Player, Stewart will receive $15,000 and a specially designed trophy by Tiffany & Co.

Below are the voting results for the 2018 WNBA Most Valuable Player and a list of past recipients.