SportsScope : Wave Star Aims at Second Record

Pepperdine basketball star Maureen Formico last week broke the school career scoring record and is moving in on the career rebounding mark.

The senior forward scored 64 points and grabbed 27 rebounds in two games as the Waves lost a non-conference game to Chapman, 66-60, and bounced back to defeat Nevada Reno, 85-71, in a West Coast Athletic Conference contest.

Formico now has 2,008 points and 1,114 rebounds in 106 games. She has surpassed Kim Bueltel’s record of 1,968 points, set in 1980, and is 156 rebounds behind Bueltel, whose career mark was 1,270.

In the win over Nevada Reno, Formico made 17 of 18 free throws to set school records for foul shots attempted and made in a game. In the two games, she shot 62.2% (23 of 37) from the floor and was 18 of 21 from the foul line, and she was named WCAC player of the week for the second straight time.

If Formico continues her heroics, Pepperdine could finish with a respectable season for Coach Ron Fortner. With eight games remaining in the season, including a Friday night league game at Nevada Reno and six other conference contests, the Waves are 2-3 in the WCAC and 4-16 overall. Reno is 3-3, 12-6.

But it may be too late for the Waves to catch the league co-leaders, U.S. International and the University of San Diego, each 5-0 in conference. USIU is 15-5 overall and San Diego is 11-7.

Coach Billie Moore’s UCLA women’s basketball team, 9-12 overall after last week’s 86-77 loss to USC, will play host to Cal State Long Beach in a non-league game at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Pauley Pavilion.

Anne Dean, who has scored in double figures in 12 of the last 13 games, continues to lead the Bruins in scoring with an average of 14.5 points, and Dora Dome is second with a 13.1-point average. Sophomore Jaime Brown has averaged 17 points in the last five games to raise her average to 9.6 points.

The Pepperdine baseball team, ranked 23rd nationally before the season by Baseball America, was rained out of last week’s opener with UCLA, and the game was rescheduled for early this week.

Wave Coach Dave Gorrie, who enters his eighth season at Pepperdine with a record of 286-145, will take his team to Arizona for a three-game series with the Wildcats (2-6) today through Saturday .

UCLA Coach Gary Adams and his baseball teams have posted a 359-285-5 mark in his 11 years at the school. The Bruins will play host to Chapman College at 2:30 p.m. Friday at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

The Pepperdine men’s volleyball team, defending NCAA champion and 4-0 overall at the start of the week, will play Stanford in a California Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. match at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Firestone Fieldhouse and travel to Loyola Marymount for another CIVA match at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday .

Last week Coach Rod Wilde’s Waves defeated CIVA foe San Dan Diego State and the University of Manitoba. This season Pepperdine has a hitting average of .303 and is averaging 3.83 blocks a game.

Coach Jerry Tomlinson’s UCLA women’s gymnastics team, ranked seventh in the nation, will compete Friday in the ‘Gator Invitational at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Other teams in the field are Oregon and host Florida, which has won 39 straight home meets.

Coach Rick Rowland’s Pepperdine men’s swim team, which won the Pepperdine Relays last week, will travel Saturday to meet UC Santa Barbara, , which has won seven straight Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. championships.

Rowland predicted that the winner of the meet “will go on to win the conference dual meet championship. On paper, we must win both relays, sweep an event and finish second in several key races in order to upset the Gauchos.”

In winning last week’s relays, Pepperdine topped Cal State Bakersfield, Cal State Northridge and Fresno State, and Wave junior Peter Rohde was named the most valuable swimmer for winning three events and swimming on five first-place relay teams. Rohde swam PCAA best times in winning the 100 freestyle in 46.33, the 100 breaststroke in 58.49 and the 400 individual medley in 4:09.69.

Coach Tom Jahn’s UCLA women’s swim team (4-2), off last week after losing to Cal and Stanford the previous week, will play host to Cal State Long Beach at 3 p.m. Friday at the UCLA Men’s Gymnasium pool.