Final Results

PROVO, Utah " The Pepperdine women's golf team took second place at the West Coast Conference Championships on Saturday, unable to overcome a very good BYU team playing on its own course.

The Waves had the first-round lead, then fell behind by five shots after two rounds, and eventually finished 11 strokes behind the Cougars, who won their second straight conference title. Pepperdine had a three-day total of a 13-over 888 (291-296-301) at the par-72 Riverside Country Club. BYU shot 877. There was a 26-stroke gap between the Waves and third-place San Francisco.

Golfstat's rankings coming into the competition had BYU at #27 and Pepperdine at #36, while in Golfweek/Sagarin, it was #31 for the Waves and #43 for the Cougars.

"I want to congratulate BYU, they played great," Pepperdine Coach Laurie Gibbs said. "This was a beautiful course, really challenging, and it was a great championships. For the Waves, we had a great first round. Yesterday we hung in there, gave a few shows away, and BYU edged us out. In the final round we had a tough start, and we couldn't do that. We fought hard on the back side and that's what I'm proud of, we fought hard until the end."

Sophomore Hira Naveed (Perth, Australia) settled for a tie for fourth place after leading the first two rounds. She wrapped up with a 3-over 219 (71-72-76).

Junior Tatiana Wijaya (Jakarta, Indonesia) had the Waves' best round of the day, a 1-over 73, which gave her sixth place, her best finish in her three trips to the WCC Championships. She had a total of a 4-over 220 (73-74-73).

Freshman Momoka Kobori (Rangiora, New Zealand) tied for ninth at 225 (73-78-74), sophomore Patricia Wong (Walnut, Calif./Walnut HS) tied for 13th at 228 (77-73-78) and junior Katherine Zhu (Vancouver, B.C.) took 15th at 234 (74-77-83).

Wijaya and Naveed both had nine birdies over the three days to lead the Waves, while Kobori had seven. On Saturday, Kobori had three while Wijaya and Naveed both had two.

Pepperdine has won 17 of the 21 WCC Championships ever contested.

The NCAA Regionals (May 8-10) are next for the Waves. The field will be announced on Thursday morning (April 27).

Team Standings: 1. BYU 296-288-293=877; 2. Pepperdine 291-296-301=888; 3. San Francisco 307-308-299=914; 4. Santa Clara 309-311-299=919; 5. Gonzaga 308-311-309=928.

Individual Leaders: 1. Alex White (BYU) 73-74-70=217; T2. Kendra Dalton (BYU) 75-70-73=218; T2. Rose Huang (BYU) 73-71-74=218; T4. Vanessa Ha (San Francisco) 73-74-72=219; T4. Hira Naveed (Pepperdine) 71-72-76=219.

Other Pepperdine Scores: 6. Tatiana Wijaya 220; T9. Momoka Kobori 73-78-74=225; T13. Patricia Wong 77-73-78=228; 15. Katherine Zhu 74-77-83=234.