Women’s Golf Ends Fall Season With Second Straight Win

story links

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico— The Pepperdine women’s golf team closed out the fall season with its straight second victory, as the Waves won the Golf Iconic Classic by four shots on Wednesday.

Pepperdine posted a three-day total of a 5-under 859 (284-291-284) at the par-72 New Mexico State University Golf Course. After starting the day a stroke behind host New Mexico State, the Waves were locked in a close battle for almost the entire final round with the Aggies and Long Beach State. But the Waves outplayed them both down the stretch and finished at 4-under for the day, while the other two schools were at 1-over. Pepperdine defeated New Mexico State by four, Long Beach State by seven, and WCC foe San Francisco by nine.

Coupled with last week’s victory at the Golfweek Red Sky Classic in Colorado, it’s the first time the Waves have won back-to-back tournaments since fall 2013.

PLAYER SCORES

• Junior Lion Higo (Gold Coast, Australia) came close to becoming the first wave to win consecutive individual titles in nearly 20 years, but she settled for a second-place finish with a 5-under 211 (70-69-72). Her final round even par included six birdies. Higo had 15 birdies overall, the most of any player in the field.
• Junior Kaleiya Romero (San Jose, Calif.) tied for fourth place with a 3-under 213 (69-73-71). She had three birdies during a 1-under final round.
• Senior Reese Guzman (Kahului, Hawaii) tied for 11th at 217 (74-73-70). Her run of three straight birdies on holes 13, 14 and 15 helped put Pepperdine into the lead for good.
• sophomore Lauren Gomez (Murrieta, Calif.) tied for 18th at 219 (72-76-71). She had three birdies en route to a 1-under today, two of which came on her first and last holes.
• Freshman Jenny Zhu (Nanjing, China) tied for 32nd at 222 (73-76-73). She had two birdies in the final round.

QUOTABLE

Pepperdine Coach Laurie Gibbs said: “Coach Rich and I are very proud of how the players prepared and competed in the fall season. Lion played great the last 10 days with first and second-place finishes. Kaleiya contributed a strong fourth place and all of the players contributed to the team’s success. We have a few months off to catch up on classes and do workouts to be even stronger when we come back in January.”

UP NEXT

The Waves will resume play in the spring semester at the Therese Hession Regional Challenge at Palos Verdes Golf Club on February 12-14.

THE NUMBERS

Team Standings: 1. Pepperdine 859; 2. New Mexico State 863; 3.Long Beach State 866; 4. San Francisco 868; 5. Oral Roberts 877; 6. Cal Poly 878; 7. UTEP 885; 8. Campbell 889; 9. Southern Utah 893; 10.UT Rio Grande Valley 901; T11. UC Riverside 902; T11. Texas A&M Corpus Christi 902; 13. South Dakota State 907; 14.CSU Bakersfield 914; 15.UT Arlington 930.

Individual leaders: 1. Sarah Bell (Oral Roberts) 208; 2.Lion Higo (Pepperdine) 211; 3. Jasmine Leovao (Long Beach State) 212; T4. Kaleiya Romero (Pepperdine) 213; T4. Lucie Charbonnier (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) 213.