VERMILLION, South Dakota – Pepperdine women's basketball (21-12, 10-8 WCC) hits the road for the first road test of the WNIT tournament in the Super 16 against South Dakota (24-9, 12-4 Summit League) Thursday night in Sanford Coyote Sports Center.
 
LAST TIME OUT
• The Waves beat Southern Utah 85-80 at home for a perfect 2-0 WNIT record in Malibu.
• Taija Sta. Maria led the team with 22 points while a total of five Waves broke into double digits scoring in the game.
• A 14-0 run to end the first quarter was enough to hold off the Thunderbirds in the second-round win for the Waves. 
 
GAME NOTES
• With a win Thursday at South Dakota, this team will once again break records with the longest postseason run in program history.
• Hosting the first two rounds of the WNIT, it is the program's first postseason appearance in seven years and the first time ever hosting a postseason game.
• Securing ten conference wins in the regular season, it is the most for the program in seven years, last doing so when posting a 10-1 conference record in the 2018-19 season.
• With nine nonconference wins, it is the most for a second-year head coach since DeLisha Milton-Jones in 2018.
• Closing out the regular season the Waves were second in the conference in field goal percentage (.445), opponent field goal percentage (.379), 3-point field goal percentage (.344) and defensive rebounds (29.0).
• Nationally, Pepperdine is 16th in defensive rebounds at 28.9 per game.
• Elli Guiney, the sole sophomore on the Waves squad, has emerged as the team's leading scorer this season, averaging 14.9 per game.
• Guiney earned All-WCC first team for her performance this season, the first Wave to receive the honor since 2020.
• Tenth in the WCC in scoring, Guiney has set five new career-highs in her sophomore year, dropping at least twenty in nine different games this year, including the most recent two.
• With a three-point percentage of .415, Guiney currently sits in second in the record books for threes in a season with 68, seven behind tying for the top spot. 
• In Thursday's game against UC Davis, both Elli Guiney and Bella Green recorded career highs to push the Waves to a 71-68 win over the Aggies.
• Elli Guiney dropped 27 points, averaging 19.0 through the last five.
• Bella Green grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds Thursday as the graduate surpassed 1,000 career boards earlier this season.
• Leading the team in points on Sunday, Taija Sta. Maria scored a career-high 22 points against a division I opponent.
• In the last five games, graduate Ivory Finley has emerged as a leader, scoring the most off the bench with 7.8 points per game.
• Averaging 22.0 minutes per game, the Minneapolis, Minn. native is shooting .467 with an identical percentage from distance.
•A record-high seven teams from the West Coast Conference were selected to participate across the three postseason tournaments.
• The three teams still dancing after the opening games are all in the WNIT with Pepperdine, Portland, and San Francisco extending their seasons.
• Graduate Meghan Fiso comes to Pepperdine from San Diego State and is third on the team in scoring with an average of 11.1 points per game and 4.9 rebounds.
• Fiso's younger sister, Katie, is a sophomore at the University of Oregon leading her team with 15.3 points per game.
• Being just one of two teams at the DI level without a single player returning for the 2025-26 season, Coach Faulkner and her staff hit the transfer portal to build a team from scratch.
• Four freshmen are joined by eight transfers to make up the squad of 12.
• Five transfers come from Division one schools with a DII guard as well as a forward from a junior college in Dodge City, Kan.
• Outside of the United States, the Waves represent five different countries in Canada, Romania, Germany, Australia, and Spain.
• Irune Orio, a transfer from Xavier, is the Spanish representative while Ilinca Belegante comes from Romania. Lina Falk is the sole German and Taija St. Maria represents the north as the Canadian on the Waves.
• The three Australians all come from different areas with one from Perth, one from Melbourne, and the final from the Gold Coast.
• Makena Mastora, a graduate transfer into the Pepperdine women's basketball program last year, is now on the other side as an assistant coach.
• In her second year at the helm, this season will be Faulkner's first curated of players originating from her and her staff.
• Faulkner has led one of the best program turnarounds in the entire country, in just one year's time turning an eight-win program into a 20 (and counting) game-winning program.
• Last season, the Waves were undefeated in nonconference play at home for the first time in five years. 
• Having her third child and second girl at the beginning of the month, Faulkner returned to coaching just 10 days after the birth of Cali Jo.
 
SERIES HISTORY WITH SOUTH DAKOTA
• All-time, Pepperdine is 2-0 against the Coyotes, including a 73-65 win earlier this season.
• Both games against South Dakota have been in Malibu as Thursday is the first game against the Summit League foe on the road.
• As two young programs, Faulkner and Eighmey are both in their second year of their program rebuild.
 
SCOUTING THE COYOTES
• Sitting at 24-9 and finishing Summit League play 12-4, South Dakota is coming off a 80-60 win over Northern Colorado at home in the second round of the WNIT.  
• Since playing Pepperdine in the Malibu Classic, South Dakota has gone 16-5, including an exit in the semifinals of their conference tournament after losing 59-74 to South Dakota State.
• Offensively, the Coyotes hae two players averaging double digits for the squad, with Angelina Robles leading the way with 16.1 per game.
• Defensively, Elise Turribiates grabs a team-leading 7.6 boards per game.
 
 
In their longest trip of the season, the Waves will tip-off in Vermillion, South Dakota at 5 p.m. pst tomorrow night. The game will be streamed on Midco Sports (subscription required) with live stats available on www.pepperdinewaves.com.
 
ABOUT PEPPERDINE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Pepperdine women's basketball has made four NCAA postseason appearances in its history, having won the WCC regular-season four times and the WCC Tournament on three occasions. With six All-American selections in program history, the Waves have also seen success in the WNIT Tournament which included a run to the Sweet Sixteen in 2019.
 
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