Pepperdine University
WCC Championships
Women's Golf Set for WCC Championships
4/17/2024 3:22:00 PM | Women's Golf
MALIBU, Calif. — The Pepperdine women's golf team will begin the postseason slate with the West Coast Conference Championships this week. The Waves have won a league-best 20 titles.
EVENT INFO — The tournament will be held at the par-72, 6,234-yard Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Wash. It's a three-day event (April 19-21) with 18 holes of golf each day.
Live scoring will be available on Golfstat with links found on www.PepperdineWaves.com. Tee times for the Waves begin at 8:20 a.m. PT and as the top-seed, Pepperdine will be paired with #2-seeded San Francisco.
FIELD — In addition to #18 Pepperdine, three other schools in the league sponsor golf, including #78 San Francisco, Santa Clara and Gonzaga.
PEPPERDINE LINEUP — The Waves' lineup consists of sophomore Jeneath Wong (Melbourne, Australia), junior Lauren Gomez (Murrieta, Calif.), senior Lion Higo (Gold Coast, Australia), sophomore Yingzhi Zhu (Nanjing, China) and junior KaYee Kwok (Tianjin, China).
RANKINGS — Pepperdine is ranked #18 in the Clipp'd national rankings this week. In the Clipp'd national individual rankings, Wong is #24, Lauren Gomez is #84, Lion Higo ranks #136 and Kaleiya Romero is #146. In the WAGR, Jeneath Wong is ranked #58 and Lion Higo ranks #97.
PEPPERDINE AT THE WCC TOURNEY — Pepperdine has won a staggering 20 of the 26 WCC titles ever contested, including a run of 14-straight between 2002 and 2015. The Waves have won three of the last four Championships, including back-to-back seasons in 2022 and 2023.  The Waves have produced the medalist in 19 of the events, including the last four-consecutive opportunities. Kaleiya Romero won last season in 2023, Lauren Gomez in 2022, Caroline Hwang in 2021 and Hira Naveed in 2019. No championship was played in 2020.
LAST TIME OUT — At the beginning of the month, Pepperdine finished up the regular season slate at the Silverado Showdown, tying for fifth-place out of 16 teams. Jeneath Wong and Lauren Gomez led the Waves performances with Wong tying for 13th (+2) and Gomez finishing tied for 23rd (+4).
SPRING SO FAR — The Waves have played in five tournaments, one - the Therese Hession Regional Challenge - that turned into a match play format and four that were formatted for stroke-play. Kaleiya Romero highlighted the former by going undefeated at 2-0-1, besting opponents from #10 Florida and Baylor.
At The Show at Spanish Trail in Las Vegas, Pepperdine finished tied for fourth with a 12-over 876. Jeneath Wong led the squad with the best finish of her career after tying for second with a 4-under 212, only three shots behind first-place. Lauren Gomez, Romero and Lion Higo also finished in the top-27 as well. The Waves went on to win the Silicon Valley Showcase the following week and Wong earned her first collegiate victory, while closing up the month of March in third-place at the Fresno State Classic. In April, Pepperdine finished tied for fifth-place at the ultra-competitive Silverado Showdown.
SMART COOKIES — Three Waves tabbed WCC All-Academic honors this season, led by a first team nod for Kaleiya Romero who has amassed a 3.634 grade point average while studying psychology at Pepperdine. Junior Lauren Gomez and sophomore Jeneath Wong also received acclaim with honorable mention honors.
NCAA SELECTION SHOW — The NCAA selection show for women's golf will be broadcasted live on Golf Channel at 2 p.m. PT on April 24.
Players Mentioned
