The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) announced on Monday that sophomore middle blocker Daenan Gyimah has been named the MPSF/Molten Defensive Player of the Week after leading the Bruins to wins in the AVCA Showcase over No. 9 Penn State and No. 3 Ohio State and a road victory over UC San Diego.

Gyiman hit .607 for the Showcase with 17 kills on 28 swings and no errors. He put together a dominate performance at the net totaling 14 blocks in the two matches. He tied his career-highs of .800 hitting percentage and three aces in the match against Penn State. In the win over two-time defending national champion Ohio State, Gyimah racked up a career-best seven block  assists, had nine kills with no errors, and came up with a huge late dig in the fifth set to keep a rally going in a 16-14 final set win.

Including the road victory at UC San Diego (3-0 on Jan. 16), he compiled 20 blocks (1.67 blocks per set), four aces and a .488 hitting clip for the week. This is the first career MPSF weekly award for Gyimah.

Gyimah and the Bruin team will hit the road for a pair of matches this Friday (9 p.m. PT) and Sunday (7 p.m. PT) at No. 3-ranked Hawai'i. The next home match for UCLA will be on February 1 versus Princeton at 7 p.m. in the Wooden Center.