Pepperdine University’s women’s basketball team is set to face the University of San Francisco in the third round of the West Coast Conference (WCC) tournament on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The game will take place at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas and will be available for streaming on ESPN+.
The Waves concluded their regular season with two road victories against Portland and Seattle, bringing their overall record to 17-11 and 10-8 in conference play. This marks Pepperdine’s best WCC record since the 2018-19 season. Over their last ten games, the team has posted an 8-2 record.
This season, Pepperdine achieved ten conference wins, a feat not accomplished since posting a 10-1 record in 2018-19. The program also secured nine nonconference wins under second-year head coach Katie Faulkner, matching achievements from previous coaching tenures.
Statistically, Pepperdine ranks second in the WCC for field goal percentage (.445), opponent field goal percentage (.379), three-point field goal percentage (.344), and defensive rebounds (29.0). Nationally, they are ranked 16th for defensive rebounds per game.
Sophomore Elli Guiney leads the team in scoring with an average of 14.4 points per game after transferring from UNLV. She has set four new career-highs this year and is currently tied for fifth place in school history for three-pointers made in a single season with 59.
Junior Lina Falk has led scoring over the past five games with an average of 15.8 points per game and holds a .400 shooting percentage from beyond the arc for the season. Graduate Bella Green recently reached her 1,000th career rebound milestone and provides key contributions off the bench.
Graduate Meghan Fiso averages 11.1 points and 4.8 rebounds per game for Pepperdine after transferring from San Diego State.
Coach Faulkner assembled this year’s roster using both freshmen and transfers due to no players returning next season—a rarity at Division I level—with representation from Canada, Romania, Germany, Australia, Spain, as well as several U.S. states.
Regarding their matchup history with San Francisco, Pepperdine trails all-time with a record of 42-50 against the Dons. Earlier this season, San Francisco won their only meeting by a score of 81-70 on its home court. The teams have not played each other on a neutral site since 2013.
San Francisco enters Saturday’s contest as a seven seed after defeating San Diego in the tournament’s second round. Candy Edokpaigbe leads San Francisco offensively with an average of 18 points per game while Noelia Mourino leads defensively with nearly seven rebounds per contest.
Pepperdine women’s basketball has previously appeared in four NCAA postseasons and has won both WCC regular-season titles and tournaments multiple times.
For more information about tickets or updates on Pepperdine women’s basketball, fans can visit www.pepperdinewaves.com or follow @PepperdineWBB on social media.
