BELLEFONTE -- A Philadelphia man accused of raping a 22-year-old woman 50 times in a seven-month period was ordered yesterday to stand trial after the woman took the stand to testify against him.

Gregory Leo Gerace, 47, was ordered by District Justice Robert May during a preliminary hearing yesterday in the Centre County Court of Common Pleas to stand trial during the court's June term.

He is charged with 50 counts of rape, 50 counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and 25 counts of indecent assault. Authorities allege the incidents occurred in several local motels and on the Penn State campus between August 1988 and last month.

Gerace is currently being held on $250,000 bail in the Centre County Prison.

Testimony during the hearing revealed a story of sexual abuse that the woman said began 10 years ago.

The alleged victim, who sobbed as police led Gerace into the courtroom, testified for nearly one hour and thirty minutes -- except for a five minute break she requested -- and never once met Gerace's eyes.

She said he raped her for the first time in New Jersey when she was 12 and he weighed 270 pounds.

Gerace, who has since lost weight, is a relative of the woman.

The attacks continued regularly until February of this year when Gerace was arrested by University Police Services officers on campus, she said.

Gerace is also charged with terroristic threats, simple assault and criminal trespass for allegedly threatening to kill the woman at a campus location. He threatened to shoot her with a pistol, court records indicate.

The woman said she feared Gerace would kill her, and did not report him because of that fear.

"He said he could get away (with shooting me). Say he's insane and get away with it," she said. "I remember one time he said he would disfigure me so no one else would want me."

The woman, who is from Philadelphia, said she moved to Centre County because it was 200 miles from home. But Gerace continued to abuse her during weekend visits, and to check up on her with daily telephone calls, she said.

Authorities produced telephone company records during the hearing that indicated Gerace telephoned her 1,745 times from Philadelphia between August 1987 and February 12 of this year, at a total cost of $2,498.30.

"It was the same thing every time," the woman said of the weekend visits.

Gerace would travel to State College on weekends and rent a room in one of several local motels, she said. He would pick her up in the morning for breakfast and in the evening for dinner, each time returning to his motel room alone.

About 9 or 10 at night Gerace would again pick her up. However, this time he would take her to his motel, where he reportedly performed oral sex and had intercourse with her, she said.

"They were always the same," she said of the nights in Gerace's motel rooms. "When I was up here, it happened every weekend unless he brought somebody up.

"I couldn't figure out how to get away (from him) and I didn't think I had anybody to go to. I never thought anybody would believe the whole situation."

In February, after telling a boyfriend of her situation, she reported the incidents to the Centre County Woman's Resource Center, which specializes in counseling victims of sexual abuse.

"I had had enough of what was going on," she said.

Gerace, who sat expressionless throughout the victim's testimony, was represented by attorney Stephen W. Furst of Bellefonte. Furst argued that the woman was a willing participant to the alleged acts.

"This is a 22-year-old woman living 200 miles from home," Furst said. "Wouldn't a person of reasonable resolution offer to resist?"

But Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar, who is prosecuting Gerace, said the woman had no choice.

"Sexual abuse has been a way of life for this woman for 10 years," Gricar said. "Basically, this man brainwashed this woman. Her will was overcome."

Both Gerace and his attorney declined to comment on the outcome of the hearing.

"You're not going to get a statement from me," Furst said.