Former Granite Bay High volleyball star Tyler Jaynes has continued to impress at the next level.

A junior middle blocker for the Pepperdine men’s volleyball team, Jaynes was named the Sports Imports/AVCA National Player of the Week as well as the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation’s co-Player of the Week.

Jaynes helped the Waves to two road victories over higher ranked teams last week, including Pepperdine’s second win over a No. 1-ranked team this season. Pepperdine beat then-No. 9 UC Santa Barbara in five games last Wednesday and then-No. 1 Cal State Northridge in four games on Friday.

The Granite Bay native averaged 2.22 kills and 1.89 blocks with a .567 hitting percentage in the two matches. He hit better than .500 in both contests.

In the win over CSUN, he led the Waves’ defensive effort with 11 block assists. He was in on more than half of Pepperdine’s season-high 20 total blocks, and helped limit the Matadors to a .169 hitting percentage. Jaynes also hit .545 with six kills and zero attack errors at CSUN.

In the earlier victory over the Gauchos, in which Pepperdine came back from a 2-0 deficit, Jaynes had a career-high-tying 14 kills and hit .579 with six blocks.

For the season, the junior ranks sixth nationally in blocks (1.48) and is also averaging two kills with a .483 hitting percentage.

This is the 23rd time a Pepperdine player has won the AVCA award. It’s the first time that Jaynes has earned either an AVCA or MPSF weekly honor.

Pepperdine (4-4, 4-3), which rose to No. 7 in the AVCA national rankings that were released today, next plays at No. 2 USC this Friday at 7 p.m. The Waves defeated the Trojans in five games on Jan. 29 when USC was the top-ranked team in the country.