NAPA, Calif. – The #17 Pepperdine women's golf team got off to a strong start in the opening round of the Chevron Silverado Showdown on Monday, finishing the first 18 in third-place with a 1-under 287 at the par-72, 6,146-yard Silverado Resort and Spa course.
 
The Waves were off to a hot start and held the lead for a large portion of the day, though dropped back a few spots as #9 USC and #11 Northwestern surged to a 6-under 282 and 3-under 285 respectively to end the round.  Pepperdine will start the next round six shots ahead of the team in sixth. The Waves are one shot ahead of #8 Texas and eight ahead of #4 UCLA.
 
Three finished in the top-20 today, led by a powerful performance from Kaleiya Romero who shot a 3-under 69 to tie for third after 18 holes.  She eagled the 16^th and amassed an additional five birdies throughout the day.  Lion Higo and Jeneath Wong are also tied for 18^th.
 
PLAYER SCORES

• Senior Kaleiya Romero (San Jose, Calif.) is tied for third with a 3-under 69 on day one.  She opened the tournament with a 3-under through her first seven holes before she was plagued by a double-bogey.  Though she rallied on the ninth with another birdie to make the turn 2-under.  She evened out with a pair of bogeys later in the round, but finished with a 3-under in her final four holes, including the eagle on the 16^th and a birdie on the 18^th to finish on a high note.
• Senior Lion Higo (Gold Coast, Australia) is tied for 18^th after shooting an even 72.  She answered a hole three bogey by going 3-under through her next untarnished 12 holes for a strong middle of the day output. 
• Sophomore Jeneath Wong (Melbourne, Australia) is also tied for 18^th with a 72 on the day, having amassed three birdies in total, including on back-to-back seventh and eighth holes and another one on the 18^th. 
• Junior Lauren Gomez (Murrieta, Calif.) shot a 2-over 74 to sit tied for 35^th after the first round.  She impressively went through her first 11 holes even, but a pair of bogeys affected her back-nine finish.
• Sophomore Yingzhi Zhu (Nanjing, China) is also tied for 35^th with a 2-over 74.  She had her two bogeys of the day on consecutive holes beginning with the fourth and had an untarnished stretch from hole nine to 16 as well.

 
THE NUMBERS
Team Scores: 1. USC 282; 2. Northwestern 285; 3. Pepperdine 287; T4. Arizona 288; T4. Texas 288; 6. San Jose State 293; 7. TCU 294; T8. Denver 295; T8. UCLA 295; T8. Washington 295; T8. Iowa State 295; 12. Oregon 297; 13. Oregon State 298; 14. California 301; 15. San Francisco 306; 16. Colorado 317.
 
Individual Scores: 1. Dianna Lee (Northwestern) 67; 2. Brianna Navrrosa (USC) 68; T3. Kaleiya Romero (Pepperdine) 69; T3. Catherine Park (USC) 69; T3. Raya Nakao (Oregon State) 69; T3. Rebecca Gyllner (SJSU) 69; T7. Camille Boyd (Washington) 70; T7 Huai-Chien Hsu (Texas) 70; T7. Bentley Cotton (Texas) 70; T7. Lilas Pinthier (Arizona) 70.
 
NEXT UP
Pepperdine will be paired with USC, Northwestern and Arizona for the second-round tomorrow, teeing off hole one beginning at 9:54 a.m.