CARLSBAD, Calif. – The Pepperdine women's golf team ended the 2023-24 season at the NCAA Division I Championships on Sunday afternoon, finishing the nation's top tournament in the third round after narrowly missing the cut by four strokes.
 
Strong winds on a tough par-72, 6,297-yard Omni La Costa North Course impacted the Waves, along with most teams competing today, as only seven of 30 teams shot in single digits and one team hit under par in the final round.  Pepperdine finished out the tournament with a final score of 893 (291-299-303).  Junior Lauren Gomez led the Waves with a 221 after shooting even par in two of the three rounds to finish tied for 41^st.
 
Texas A&M has a one-shot lead over Stanford, with 10- and 9-under performances thus far.  Only LSU in third is also under par at 1-under, while all other teams shot over par after 54-holes.  Texas A&M's Adela Cernousek has a six-shot advantage for first-place heading into the fourth and final round tomorrow.
 
This was the 14^th time in program history, and second in as many years, the Waves competed at the finals site of the NCAA Tournament.
 
PLAYER SCORES

• Junior Lauren Gomez (Murrieta, Calif.) finished tied for 41^st with a 221 (72-77-72).  She opened the day even par through four holes and added a birdie on the fifth to start strong, though tagged a pair of bogeys prior to the turn to head to the 10^th 1-over.  She then fired off a 3-under through her first four holes on the back nine before finishing the back 1-under for an even performance on the day.  She led the Waves with 10 birdies overall.
• Senior Kaleiya Romero (San Jose, Calif.) finished the tournament with a 225 (74-78-73) to tie for 71^st.  She started the round with a bogey, but then birdied on five for a 1-under through 11 errorless holes in the middle of the day.  She had another birdie on the back nine and finished 1-over on the day.  The senior finished with seven birdies.
• Sophomore Yingzhi Zhu (Nanjing, China) also tied for 71^st with a 225 (72-73-80).  She had one birdie on the day and amassed eight birdies through three rounds.
• Senior Lion Higo (Gold Coast, Australia) tied for 86^th with a 227 (73-76-78).  She finished out the round shooting par on her final eight bogeyless holes, and had a stretch of five-straight for par through the day.  Higo was tied for fourth in the field in par scoring, shooting for par on 40 of her 54 holes throughout the weekend.
• Sophomore Jeneath Wong (Melbourne, Australia) ended tied for 140^th with a 237 (78-73-86). 

 
THE NUMBERS
Team Scores:
Advancing Teams: 1. Texas A&M 854; 2. Stanford 855; 3. LSU 863; 4. Clemson 866; 5. Northwestern 873; 6. UCLA 874; T7. Oregon 876; T7. Auburn 876; 9. Arkansas 877; 10. USC 878; 11. Duke 883; 12. Wake Forest 884; 14. Mississippi State 885; 14. Texas 887; 15. Florida State 889.
Non-Advancing Teams: 16. Arizona State 890; T17. Michigan State 892; T17. San Jose State 892; 19. Pepperdine 893; 20. Vanderbilt 897; 21. Baylor 899; 22. Oregon State 900; 23. South Carolina 904; T24. Oklahoma State 912; T24. SMU 912; T26. Tulsa 913; T26. North Carolina 913; 28. Virginia 914; 29. Purdue 916; 30. Ole Miss.
 
Individual Scores: 1. Adele Cernousek (TAMU) 204; 2. Lottie Woad (Florida State) 210; 3. Maria Jose Marin (Arkansas) 211; T4 Carla Tejedo Mulet (LSU) 212; T4. Paula Martin Sampedro (Stanford) 212; T4. Kiara Romero (Oregon) 212; T4. Aine Donegan (LSU) 212; T4. Ashley Yun (Northwestern) 212; T4. Cayetana Fernandez GarciaPoggio (TAMU) 212.