MALIBU Calif. — The Pepperdine women’s basketball team bolstered its backcourt with the addition of California graduate transfer Ornela Muca, who signed with the Waves on Monday.
Muca is the third transfer to sign under new head coach Kaite Faulkner, joining Makena Mastora (Saint Mary’s) and Malia Mastora (Cal State San Marcos) who signed with Pepperdine in April. So far, all three of Faulkner’s signees are guards.
A 5-foot-7 graduate transfer with international basketball experience playing in Albania and Greece, Muca comes to Pepperdine after spending the past four seasons at Cal. When Muca signed with the Golden Bears, she was part of a highly decorated signing class that was not only the nation’s seventh-ranked recruiting class according to ESPN, but also the program’s highest-ranked class in over a decade.
This past season, Muca helped the Golden Bears finish with a 19-15 record and reach the second round of the WBIT. She has single-game highs of 11 points (at Colorado, 1/15/21), six rebounds (vs. San Jose State, 11/25/20), four assists (vs. San Francisco, 12/10/20) and three steals (vs. Stanford, 12/13/20).
Internationally, Muca was a member of Albania’s U18 and U20 National Teams. She competed at the 2019 FIBA U18 Women’s European Championships and the 2022 U20 Women’s European Championships; at the latter tournament, she averaged 22.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. Before going stateside to play college basketball, Muca competed for the Greek club team Panathinaikos and helped the squad win the U18 Regional Championship of Athens (ESKA) and finish second in the U18 Championship of Greece.
Muca attended the American Community School of Athens, where she graduated in 2020. She was an all-star selection at the American Community School, plus she also competed in track and field.