Leading UC Riverside to a win over a top-25 program earned Kemie Nkele a share of this week's Big West Women's Basketball Player of the Week honor. Also highlighted this week is Pacific's Janae Young who tallied a career-high performance in a 2-0 week for the Tigers. This is Nkele’s eighth award of her career and the third weekly accolade for Young.
In UC Riverside's first home game of the season, Nkele scored a game-high tying 17 points and grabbed a game-high tying eight boards to lead the Highlanders to an upset win against No. 16 Vanderbilt. The San Diego, Calif., native shot .615 from the field to lift UC Riverside to its first-ever victory over a ranked opponent in its eight-year NCAA Division I history. Earlier in the week, Nkele drained 17 points and recorded six rebounds at San Diego State. Nkele, who continues to pace the Highlanders in scoring, averaged 17 points and seven rebounds for the week. She has now scored in double figures in all seven games thus far and has been the high scorer for UC Riverside in all but one contest.

Young led the Tigers to a pair of wins over a pair of 5-1 teams entering the week. Against Portland State, the Sacramento, Calif., native posted her first double-double of the year with 11 points and 13 rebounds. Three days later against the Fresno State Bulldogs, Young registered a career-high 27 points and was just one rebound short of her second straight double-double. For the week, Young shot .519 from the field and averaged 19 points and 11 rebounds.

Others nominated: Lisa McBride (Cal Poly), Ashley Blake (Cal State Northridge), Paige Mintun (UC Davis), Lauren Pedersen (UC Santa Barbara)