LA MIRADA, Calif. --- For the first time in her collegiate career Abigail Copeland's scooped up a PacWest Conference weekly honor. The freshman middle blocker led the conference in blocks this week, including a pair of eight-block matches at Point Loma and APU, to earn Defender of the Week.

She becomes the second award-winner this season for Biola, following Sami Hover's Defender of the Week title on Sept. 9.

"Good for her," said Head Coach Aaron Seltzer. "It's exciting to see her continuing to improve. She's been working hard and does a great job studying her opponent."

Copeland's 16-block week puts her up into first place in the conference blocks-per-set category. She averaged two-per-set this week and is at 1.21-per-set for the season. That's the best mark in the conference and puts the freshman top-25 nationally. 

She helped the Eagles to a 1-1 record on the week they had a pair of tough road tests. Copeland's seven kills on a .583 clip with her eight blocks were a big reason BU was able to knock off Point Loma in four on Wednesday night.

This week Copeland and the Eagles travel to Hawaii for three grueling matches in a four-day span. The team left this morning and plays Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday at 10 p.m. PT.