Pepperdine Women Continuing to Climb

The Pepperdine women’s basketball team gained a toehold in its climb to the first West Coast Conference tournament.

The Waves had a 2-4 record through the first six games of conference play but have won three of their last four games to put themselves back in the race for the WCC tournament, March 13-14. The first four teams in regular-season play will be in the tournament and the winner will receive an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.

“We reached a point in our schedule where the kids realized they had their backs against the wall,” Pepperdine Coach Ron Fortner said.

Pepperdine upset Santa Clara, 62-60, and beat San Diego, 89-65, at home last weekend, then went on the road and beat San Diego, 70-58, on Thursday and lost at Santa Clara, 84-69, on Saturday.

Pepperdine (13-10 overall) is 5-5 in the conference and is in fifth place behind Portland (11-12 overall, 7-3 in the conference); San Francisco (15-8, 7-3); Santa Clara (15-7, 7-2) and St. Mary’s (17-6, 6-4).

Shannon Frowiss, a senior forward and two-time All-WCC selection, leads Pepperdine, averaging 13.6 points and 7.1 rebounds per game--lower than her 17.7 points and 8.0 averages over the past two seasons.

“This year is a lot different than last year,” Frowiss said. “Now we have 12 people that can come out and play.”

Forward Barbara Tanner averages 11.7 points and 5.4 rebounds, and guard Aimee McDaniel averages 8.8 points and provides a perimeter threat.

Portland, which Pepperdine will play host to on Feb. 28, is the only one of the conference’s top four teams that the Waves will face in their remaining four games.

Jason Mulholland, a freshman from Canada, is hard to miss on the USC men’s volleyball team.

At 6 feet 7, Mulholland has gray fuzz for hair because he shaved his head in fall. Trojan players thought Mulholland resembled the character Bull Shannon, a bailiff played by 6-7 actor Richard Moll, on NBC’s television show Night Court.

The nickname stuck, so has his impact on the team.

Mulholland, a swing hitter, leads the Trojans with a 5.6 kill average. However, he was an unknown factor for USC in the preseason because he is from Canada and was not easily viewed by college scouts from the United States, although Mulholland was a 1991 All-Province Juvenile National most valuable player.

“(Mulholland) is doing everything we thought he could do,” said USC Coach Jim McLaughlin, who heard about Mulholland while coaching the U.S. men’s team in the Americas Cup in Argentina in 1990. Members of the Canadian contingent at the tournament spoke highly of the then 17-year-old Mulholland.

“The only reason we had some question marks on him is because . . . I could see that he had a great arm swing and could jump high, but I hadn’t seen him pass at the college level,” he said. “He’s learning real fast.”

Being tossed into the limelight does not seem to have affected Mulholland, who is as mild-mannered off the court as his TV counterpart. “I hear a lot about pressure,” Mulholland said, “but I really don’t understand that.”

The No. 7 Trojans are 5-3 overall, 3-2 in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn.

Strolling through the WIVA, Pepperdine (12-0, 5-0 in the league) is thinking lofty thoughts. After big victories over No. 3 Stanford on Jan. 18 and No. 4 UCLA on Feb. 4, Pepperdine was ranked second last week by Volleyball Monthly behind top-ranked Cal State Long Beach.

“I think we’re moving into the upper class in the WIVA,” said Tom Sorenson, Pepperdine’s leading outside hitter.

Pepperdine’s shallow roster, however, could be its Achilles’ heel. Its top six players have played in almost every game, and its reserves have made only scattered appearances.

Mike Normand, the Loyola Marymount men’s volleyball coach, is frustrated because he has 2 1/2 scholarships, or half the maximum allowed under NCAA regulations, giving him a disadvantage against fully funded programs.

“Give me an even field, see if I can do it in five years, and if I can’t, then fire me,” Normand said. “I challenge the administration and the school to make the commitment.”

Loyola Marymount women’s volleyball has 10 full scholarships. Twelve is the maximum number of scholarships allowed in women’s volleyball.

“In time, we are going to have more funding for the (men’s volleyball) program. At least that’s my goal,” Loyola Athletic Director Brian Quinn said. “But I also understand the university’s overall commitment. They have other priorities that aren’t always the same as what the coaches want.”

Loyola Marymount is 1-8 overall, 0-5 in WIVA.

Notes

The nation’s top-ranked men’s tennis teams will converge in Louisville (Ky.) this week for the USTA/ITCA National Indoor Team Championships. No. 1 UCLA, No. 2 USC and No. 7 Pepperdine, which all have byes on Thursday in the first round, are three of five California teams that will participate. Last year, UCLA beat USC in the final, 5-2, but USC won the NCAA championships in May.

The women’s USTA/ITCA National Indoor Team Championships will be played Feb. 27-March 1 in Madison (Wis.) and will feature No. 4 UCLA, No. 11 Pepperdine and unranked USC. . . . Representatives from the Big West Conference and the Pacific 10 Conference said last week that the conferences will take the next step toward forming a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, which would compete in men’s and women’s soccer, men’s volleyball, water polo, wrestling, men’s gymnastics and men’s and women’s indoor track. The next meeting is March 4 in Las Vegas.