MALIBU, Calif. — After a trio of top-three finishes this spring, including a first-place end at The Prestige for the first time in program history, the Pepperdine men's golf team will be back in action in Tucson for the NIT. 
 
EVENT INFO — The NIT will be held at the par-72, 7,200-yard Omni Tucson National Resort's Catalina Course in Tucson, Ariz.  There will be 36 holes of golf on Friday, followed by the final 18 on Saturday (March 17-18).  Live scoring will be available via Golfstat.
 
FIELD — In addition to #9 Pepperdine, the highly competitive 13-team field includes #3 Arizona State, #4 Illinois, #12 Florida, #13 Oklahoma, #18 Arizona, #21 Colorado State, #22 Oklahoma State, #27 San Diego State, New Mexico, San Diego, USC and Wyoming. 
 
EVENT HISTORY — This is Pepperdine's second appearance in the NIT, as the Waves finished third (-28) last season behind Oklahoma State (-53) and Texas (-32).  Pepperdine did take part in another one of Arizona's tournaments, the Arizona Intercollegiate, 18 times between 1994 and 2017.
 
PEPPERDINE LINEUP — Pepperdine's lineup for the NIT consists of senior William Mouw (Chino, Calif./Ontario Christian HS), graduate students Luke Gifford (Boca Raton, Fla./South Florida), Derek Hitchner (Minneapolis, Minn./The Blake School), Sam Choi (Anaheim, Calif./New Mexico) and Roberto Nieves (Miami, Fla./Delaware).
 
RANKINGS — The Waves are currently #9 by Golfstat, tied-#8 by the Bushnell/Golfweek coaches poll and #12 by Golfweek/Sagarin.
 
Golfweek/Sagarin individual rankings: Hitchner #20, Mouw #22, Choi #55.
 
Golfstat individual rankings: Mouw #16, Hitchner #22, Choi #43, Gifford #183.
 
PGA Tour University rankings: Mouw #4, Choi #18, Hitchner #21, Gifford #87, Nieves #101.
 
World Amateur Golf Rankings: Mouw #7, Hitchner #36, Choi #38.
 
WCC MONTHLY ACCLAIM — William Mouw earned his first-ever West Coast Conference Golfer of the Month accolade for his performances in February.  He averaged 70.33 strokes per round and tabbed four below par rounds out of his nine rounds played through three tournaments.  He moved up from around the 40's in the Golfstat player rankings to #15 at the end of the month, which is better than any other WCC player.  He finished int he top-10 twice and top-20 in all three tournaments, including a second-place finish at The Prestige, helping the Waves to the tournament title for the first time in program history.
 
SPRING HIGHLIGHTS — The Waves had a strong performance at The Prestige, finishing on top out of 24 teams and winning the well-known 22-year-old tournament for the first time in program history.  William Mouw had the lead after day one, shooting 7-under for a 65, one shy of his career best performance and he ended in second overall.  Derek Hitchner moved up 18 spots on the leaderboard in the final round to finish tied for fifth and Sam Choi finished tied for ninth. 
 
Pepperdine began slowly at its own Southwestern Invitational to open the Spring campaign, finishing the first round tied-sixth.  The Waves had better second and third rounds than any other team, moving up four spots to finish second overall with a 1-under, but it would not be enough to overcome a 14-under display from Texas for the win.  In the most recent tournament, the Waves finished third with a three-day score of 846 (278-286-282) at Southern Highlands.  Mouw tied for fifth with an 8-under after three rounds, posting a 7-under 65 in the final round alone.  Choi also finished in the top-20, tying for 16th.