IRVINE, Calif. -- After being ranked No. 10 in the first NCAA West Region rankings, Biola picked up two wins over No. 2 Concordia, becoming the first PacWest team to have defeated this year’s PacWest Champions all season after Raylene Roybal and Paige Austin both pitched shutouts.
 
Austin struck out 11 batters in the first game and was perfect through 4.2 innings as she snapped Concordia’s 37-game winning streak in PacWest games. She moved up to eighth in PacWest history in single-season strikeouts with 175, surpassing 2016 PacWest Pitcher of the Year Grayson Harvey.
 
Azusa Pacific earned four-game sweep against Dominican last week to improve to 34-14 on the season, making the Cougars tied for the third-most wins in the West Region this season.
 
The Cougars had two shutout victories in the series and Katie Korstrom earned her 13th win of the season, which is the second-most in the PacWest this year.
 
The first NCAA West Region rankings were released on Wednesday. Concordia led the conference as the No. 2 team in the West Region. The top-2 teams in the region will get to host the opening rounds of the NCAA postseason.
 
Azusa Pacific is inside the playoff picture with one week left in the regular season, holding the No. 7 spot. Biola is also in the top-10 with its 22-17 record. The two wins over Concordia could move Biola up in the rankings, but earning a spot in the top-8 will be a challenge since the GNAC tournament champion will receive an automatic bid. Azusa Pacific and Concordia will face each other in a doubleheader on Saturday.
 
Weekly awards for the week of April 18-24
 
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Lauryn Henderson, Academy of Art
C, Sr., 5-9 -- Gilbert, Ariz.
Henderson had four multi-hit games last week and belted six extra-base hits to help the Urban Knights earn two conference wins. Henderson wrapped up the trip to Hawai`i by going 6 for 12 with five runs in the first three games against Chaminade. In the second game of the series, she went 2 for 4 with a home run and a double, scoring twice with two RBIs. After the Urban Knights returned to San Francisco, they earned a split against Holy Names to remain in eighth place in the PacWest standings. Henderson went 1 for 2 in the first game with her first triple of the season and a walk. Then she went 3 for 4 with two doubles and three runs in Academy of Art’s second win of the week. She now has a .336 batting average with 20 extra-base hits and 21 RBIs this season.
 
PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Paige Austin, Biola
RHP, Sr., 5-5 -- Los Alamitos, Calif.
Austin earned her 12th win of the season by throwing an 11-strikeout shutout to defeat No. 9 Concordia in the first game of a doubleheader sweep. Austin allowed just three hits and no walks. This is the ninth time that Austin has pitched in a shutout for Biola and the sixth time that she has pitched all seven innings. The win for Austin gave Concordia its first conference loss of the season after starting the year with a 28-0 record in PacWest games. Austin got the first three batters of the game to go down swinging and she struck out four of the first five that she faced. Austin retired the first 11 batters she faced before a two-out single broke up the perfect game in the fourth inning. She struck out the next two batters and then got a double play in the fifth inning to keep the shutout going. In the sixth inning, she struck out the side for the second time and then retired the side in order in the seventh inning. She now has a 12-5 record with a 0.84 ERA and 175 strikeouts in 125 innings pitched.