In brief

Chosen as a candidate for the 2009–10 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award is Portland State women’s basketball senior point guard Claire Faucher.

Faucher is the only player from a Big Sky team to be chosen as a candidate for the prestigious award that recognizes student-athletes for their performance both on and off the court. To be eligible, players must be classified as a NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas—classroom, character, community and competition.

According to a statement released by the university, Faucher has served as a Young Life leader, a counselor at the Royal Family Kids Camp and a speaker at youth school events.

On the court, she led Division I basketball in assists per game two seasons ago and ranked sixth last year. Going into this season, she needs only 83 assists to become Portland State’s all-time leader and 86 to break the Big Sky’s all-time record.

Named to the ESPN Academic All-District VIII First Team for his performance on the football field and in the classroom is Portland State junior quarterback Drew Hubel.

Hubel, who maintains a 3.84 GPA according to a statement released by the school, has started 19 games and played in 23 in his career at Portland State. He is fifth in the school’s all-time passing, with 6,343 yards, and his 42 touchdowns place him sixth.

Hubel has twice been selected as Academic All-Conference, and was chosen as the Big Sky Player of the Week three times. Last year, he was given the Mike Schrunk Award, the Portland State football team’s scholar athlete of the year honor.

Repeating last year, Portland State volleyball player Erica Jepsen has again been named to the ESPN Academic All-District VIII First Team.

Jepsen, a senior middle blocker, is the third player in Portland State volleyball history to earn first team honors, and only the second to earn the distinction twice. She is the only player from a Big Sky Conference team to be named to the first, second or third teams.

With her average of 1.57 blocks per set, Jepsen ranks fifth in the nation, and her .331 hitting percentage places her 90th. According to a statement released by the university, Jepsen has a 3.97 GPA in speech and hearing sciences, making her the player with the highest grade point average on the District VIII First Team.