MALIBU, Calif. — The Pepperdine women's golf team will begin NCAA tournament play next week as the Waves head to Nicholasville, Ky. for the NCAA Lexington Regional. The Waves qualified for regional play for the 26th-consecutive year, earning the #7 seed.
 
EVENT INFO — The tournament will be held at the par-72 6,322-yard Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Ky. It's a three-day event (May 5-7) with 18 holes of golf played each day. The top-five teams will advance to compete in the national championships to be played May 16-21 at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif.
 
The 7th-seeded Waves will start to tee off at 5:55 a.m. PT on Monday, and Pepperdine will be paired with 8th-seeded Louisville and 9th-seeded Miami during the opening round.
 
Live scoring will be available via SCOREBOARD and the live scoring can be found here.
 
FIELD — In order of seeding, the teams heading to the regional are Florida State, USC, TCU, Vanderbilt, Kansas State, Georgia Southern, Pepperdine, Louisville, Miami, Western Kentucky, Morehead State and Fairleigh Dickinson.
 
PEPPERDINE LINEUP — The Waves' lineup consists of senior Lauren Gomez (Murrieta, Calif.), junior Jeneath Wong (Melbourne, Australia), freshman Eunseo Choi (Auckland, New Zealand), freshman Grace Anderson (Burlington, Ontario, Canada) and junior Yingzhi Zhu (Nanjing, China).
 
WCC POSTSEASON HONORS — Following a strong debut season, Eunseo Choi garnered the Freshman of the Year award in addition to making the All-WCC team. Lauren Gomez and Jeneath Wong also made the All-WCC team.
 
NCAA HISTORY — Pepperdine is competing in NCAA Regional play for the 26th-consecutive tournament. The Waves have advanced to the NCAA Championships 14 times, last making it in 2024. The Waves best-ever NCAA Tournament finish was second in 2003 when the tournament was still stroke-play format. Pepperdine has recorded four top-five and nine top-10 finishes at nationals. The Waves NCAA Championship top-five finishes include 2nd (2003), 3rd (2006), 4th (2005) and 5th (2023 and 1999).
 
The Waves best-ever finish at a regional was a tie for first place twice - first at the 2002 NCAA West Regional at Stanford and then again two years ago at the NCAA San Antonio Regional. The top individual finish was a tie for second place by Katherine Hull that year and by Tatiana Wijaya in 2017.
 
RANKINGS — Pepperdine sits 40th in the most recent NCAA rankings. In the WAGR, Eunseo Choi is ranked #73, while Jeneath Wong is ranked #91 and has ranked as high as #45. Additionally, Lauren Gomez is #105 in the WAGR.
 
LAST TIME OUT — The Waves last competed at the WCC Championship April 17-19, where the squad finished in 2nd at 7-over with a three-day total of 871 (289-290-292) at the Green Valley Country Club.
 
Jeneath Wong led the Waves with a 3-under 213 as she earned her fourth top-10 finish of the season, and the 12th such finish of her career.
 
TEAM EFFORT — Pepperdine has amassed a 290.33 team scoring average through 30 rounds of action so far this season, impressing with a 72.58 collective scoring average, which is on track to be one of the program's best scoring averages. The Waves best season came just two years ago when they posted a 288.20, while Pepperdine also recorded a 289.80 average last year.
 
RECORD BOOK WATCH — Jeneath Wong sits at the top of the record book in career scoring, having posted a 72.46 score in 82 rounds played. Lauren Gomez trails closely behind in third with a career average of 72.92 in her 126 rounds completed, while Yingzhi Zhu is 18th on the scoring list with an average of 75.46 over her 78 rounds played.
 
Additionally, Gomez is currently second in the program record books with 37 career below-par rounds - one such round away from moving into a tie for first - while Wong is 6th on that list with 30 career below-par rounds. Gomez is tied for 8th with 17 all-time top-10 finishes as a Wave, and she's 10th with 24 all-time top-20 finishes in her career.
 
Gomez also notched her name in the record books under lowest 54-hole score, tying for third after posting an 11-under 205 to win the first tournament of the season - the Branch Law Firm Dick McGuire Invitational.  She had another solid tournament in the following showing and now ties for eighth after having marked a 9-under 207 at the Golfweek Red Sky Classic.
 
ROSTER — The Waves return four of seven players, four of which saw action in the NCAA Championships last season.  Senior Lauren Gomez returns to the squad after winning her second individual WCC Championship last spring, and so does two-time All-American and 2024 WCC Player of the Year, junior Jeneath Wong.  Additionally, senior KaYee Kwok and junior Yingzhi Zhu have returned.  Pepperdine adds three freshmen to the ranks, Grace Anderson (Burlington, Ontario, Canada), Eunseo Choi (Auckland, New Zealand) and Nishna Patel (Mumbai, India).  This year, Pepperdine has eight players (two seniors, two juniors, and three freshmen).
 
2023-24 RECAP — The Waves are coming off their 25th-straight NCAA Regional and the program's 14th all-time NCAA Finals appearance in 2024.  Pepperdine also won the program's 21st WCC Championship in the last 26 years last season.  The Waves finished ranked #21 in the WGCA Coach's Poll, after recording four first-place tournament finishes - Dick McGuire Invitational, Golfweek Red Sky Classic, Silicon Valley Showcase and WCC Championships - throughout the 2023-24 campaign.  The Waves had two individual wins in tournaments last season, first with Jeneath Wong's first collegiate victory at the Silicon Valley Showcase and then with Lauren Gomez taking home the top spot at the WCC Championships for the second time in her career.
 
Wong garnered WGCA and Golfweek All-American with honorable mention status and earned WCC Player of the Year acclaim.  Wong, Gomez and now-graduated seniors Lion Higo and Kaleiya Romero earned All-WCC first team nods.  Head Coach Laurie Gibbs earned WCC Coach of the Year honors for the 16th time in her career.
 
GIBBS — Under the direction of Laurie Gibbs, who is now in her 32nd season as head coach, Pepperdine has earned a place as one of the nation's top golf programs. Gibbs has been honored 16 times as the WCC's Coach of the Year, was tabbed the West Region Coach of the Year on three occasions and was selected the National Coach of the Year by Golfweek in 2004-05 and 2022-23. Gibbs was inducted into the WGCA Coaches Hall of Fame in December 2015. The Waves have won 60 tournaments in her career.
 
GOLF HISTORY — The Waves have qualified for 14 NCAA Championships, and have recorded nine top-10 finishes and five top-five showings, including a program-best second-place result in 2003. The Waves have won West Coast Conference championships in 21 of the 27 tournaments ever held, including a streak of 14 titles that ran from 2002 to 2015.  Sixteen different players have earned All-American honors a total of 32 times. LPGA Tour players have included Katherine (Hull) Kirk, Lindsey Wright, Tamie Durdin, Nadina (Taylor) Light, Misun Cho, Carolina Llano, Danielle Kang, Taylore Karle and Grace Na.  Hull was the 2003 National Player of the Year and was inducted into the WGCA Hall of Fame in 2012.  Kang won back-to-back U.S. Amateur Championships in 2010 and 2011 and was a U.S. Olympian in 2021.
 
ABOUT PEPPERDINE — Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won NCAA Division I championships in five different men's sports — one of just 20 schools to have accomplished this feat — and 10 overall. Of this elite group, Pepperdine has the smallest undergraduate enrollment, is the only school without football and is the only university that has not been affiliated with a "major" conference. The Waves have won a total of 26 team or individual national championships in their history. Pepperdine has also earned the Division I-AAA All-Sports Trophy, an award based on postseason success that's given to the top non-football school, four times (most recently in 2022-23). Located in scenic Malibu, California, the university overlooks the Pacific Ocean and its campus and athletic facilities are regularly voted among the nation's most beautiful. Pepperdine, which is affiliated with the Church of Christ, ranks #80 overall on U.S. News and World Report's list of America's best colleges.