Pepperdine Women's Golf Set for NCAA San Antonio Regional

MALIBU, Calif. — Coming off another victory at the West Coast Conference Championships, the Pepperdine women's golf team earned a spot in NCAA Regional play for the 24th-consecutive year. The Waves are headed to San Antonio, Texas, where as the #3 seed they'll try to advance to the NCAA finals for the 13th time in program history.

EVENT INFO —The NCAA San Antonio Regional will be held at the par-72, 6,420-yard TPC San Antonio, located in San Antonio, Texas. There will be 18 holes each day between Monday and Wednesday (May 8-10). Live scoring will be available through Golfstat.

Pepperdine will be paired with Texas A&M and Auburn during Monday's first round and they'll start at 6 a.m. PT on the first tee.

The top five teams and top individual from a non-qualifying team will advance to the NCAA Championships set for Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona from May 19-24.

FIELD — The 12 teams in the field, in order of seeding, are: Texas A&M, Auburn, Pepperdine, Oklahoma State, SMU, UCLA, New Mexico, Denver, Illinois, Sam Houston, ULM and Missouri State.

PEPPERDINE LINEUP — The Waves' lineup consists of junior Lion Higo (Gold Coast, Australia), freshman Jeneath Wong (Melbourne, Australia), junior Kaleiya Romero (San Jose, Calif.), senior Reese Guzman (Kahului, Hawai'i) and sophomore Lauren Gomez (Murrieta, Calif.). Additionally, freshman Yingzhi Zhu (Nanjing, China) will travel as a potential substitute.

For those in lineup, it would be the third NCAA Regional for Kaleiya Romero (San Jose, Calif.), Lion Higo (Gold Coast, Australia) and Reese Guzman (Kahului, Hawai'i) and the second for Lauren Gomez (Murrieta, Calif.).

RANKINGS — Golfstat has the Waves ranked #18 and Golfweek has Pepperdine ranked #24 this week.

Jeneath Wong ranks #48 on the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Lion Higo, Wong, Kaleiya Romero currently rank #32, #42 and #124 respectively on the individual Golfstat rankings. In the Golfweek individual rankings, Wong, Higo and Romero rank #38, #41 and #136 respectively

NCAA HISTORY — Pepperdine is competing in NCAA Regional play for the 24th-consecutive time. The Waves have advanced to the NCAA Championships 12 times, last making it in 2017. Pepperdine has recorded four top-five and eight top-10 finishes at nationals.

The Waves best-ever finish at a regional was a tie for first place at the 2002 NCAA West Regional at Stanford. The top individual finish was a tie for second place by Katherine Hull that year and by Tatiana Wijaya in 2017.

WCC CHAMPS — Pepperdine won the West Coast Conference Championships for a league-best 20th time (out 26 possible tournaments) in the end of April. The Waves took home the top three spots, led by the WCC Championship individual title win by Kaleiya Romero who shot 7-under. The Waves finished 12-under after three rounds, beating second-place BYU by 17-strokes - marking the all-time best team score at a WCC Championship. Romero's title was the fourth-consecutive WCC Tournament win by the Waves. Lion Higo and Reese Guzman finished in second and third.

SPRING HIGHLIGHTS — Pepperdine has won or finished as co-champions in five tournaments this season, a feat that the Waves have only accomplished one other time in program history - in the 2002-03 season. In that season, the program went on to finish as NCAA Championship Runner-Up. Additionally, the last time the Waves won four tournaments in a single-season was the 2013-14 campaign.

The squad won two tournaments in the fall, Golfweek Red Sky Classic and Golf Iconic Classic. Pepperdine has finished top-five in six of the seven tournaments played, taking home the Anuenue Spring Break Classic title and finishing as co-champion of the Silicon Valley Showcase alongside top-ranked Stanford, snapping the Cardinal's winning streak, and closing things up with the league title.

Lion Higo has had an impressive junior season, winning two tournaments, including the Silicon Valley Showcase last month. She had finished in the top-10 in six of the 10 events played this season, and in the top-20 in all 10. Jeneath Wong has had a breakout freshman season as well and has finished in the top-20 in all five events played, and top-10 in four, since joining the Waves in January.

In the final tournament of the regular season, the Waves had five players finish in the top-10, led by medalist Higo. Romero finished in fourth, Wong sixth, Lauren Gomez 10th and Reese Guzman, who competed as an individual, finished ninth. Romero had finished in the top-10 in four tournaments this season, while Gomez has achieved the feat three times and Guzman has twice.

WCC POSTSEASON HONORS — Laurie Gibbs was named WCC Coach of the Year, her 15th time winning the award, while Lion Higo was named Player of the Year. It was the eighth time a Wave has earned the top honor all-time. Higo, Kaleiya Romero, Lauren Gomez, Reese Guzman and Jeneath Wong all earned All-WCC first team acclaim as well.

WCC MONTHLY ACCLAIM — Kaleiya Romero picked up the second WCC Golfer of the Month honor of her career and the first this season in April. She averaged 71.67 strokes per round and four of her nine rounds were below par. She finished in the top-10 in all three tournaments, winning the West Coast Conference Championships to highlight and helping the Waves to the league title in the process.

Lion Higo also earned the West Coast Conference Golfer of the Month nod twice this season - in February and March. In March, Higo averaged 71.33 strokes per round and shot below par in five of her six rounds played. She finished top-11 in both tournaments, including fifth in the final tournament. In February, she had earned her first-ever Golfer of the Month recognition after averaging 71.50 strokes per round. Three of her six rounds were below par and she finished in the top-20 in both tournaments and the top-five at one.

RECORD BOOK WATCH — The Waves have been putting a dent on the record book this season. At the Anuenue Spring Break Classic, Pepperdine had the second-best 36-hole score in Pepperdine women's golf history with a 15-under, tied the third-best 54-hole score for the second time this season with an 18-under, and posted the fourth-best single round with an 11-under in the second round. In the Fall, the Waves had also tied for third for the 54-hole score, tied for 6th with a 9-under second round and put in the third-best 36-hole score with 12-under - all at the Golfweek Red Sky Classic.

Individually, Lion Higo tied for fourth with a 10-under 54-hole score at the Golfweek Red Sky Classic, while Reese Guzman tied for fifth with a 7-under 18-hole score in the second round at the Anuenue Spring Break Classic. Higo also tied for third with an 8-under 18-hole score in the second round of the WCC Championships.

Higo sits atop the record books with an impressive 71.20 scoring average so far this season, in front of Grace Na who tabbed a 71.73 throughout the 2013-14 season. Higo and Lauren Gomez currently rank 6th in the program's career scoring average lists with a 73.76. Higo is second with 15 below-par rounds in a single season, tied for fourth with 10 top-20 finishes.

Pepperdine Women's Golf Set for NCAA San Antonio Regional

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Lauren Gomez

Reese Guzman

Lion Higo

Kaleiya Romero

Jeneath Wong

Yingzhi Zhu

Footer