MALIBU, Calif. —The Pepperdine women’s golf team is set to begin the spring season at the Therese Hession Regional Challenge in Palos Verdes, Calif. on Sunday morning.
 
“The Waves are ready to start the spring championship season,” head coach Laurie Gibbs said. “The Therese Hession tournament has another very strong field at the beautiful Palos Verdes Golf Club.”
 
EVENT INFO — The three-day, 54-hole tournament will be played at the par 71, 6,017-yard Palos Verdes Golf Club, hosted by Ohio State on Sunday-Tuesday (Feb. 2-4). There will be 18 holes played each day with tee times beginning at 9 a.m. on Sunday and Monday, while Tuesday’s final round will have a shotgun start at 8:15 a.m.
 
The Waves will start to tee off on hole 1 at 10 a.m. on Sunday, and Pepperdine will be paired with Arizona, UCLA and Florida for the first two rounds.
 
FIELD — In addition to #48 Pepperdine, the field includes tournament host #29 Ohio State as well as #3 South Carolina, #4 USC, #5 Texas, #6 Oregon, #7 Arizona State, #8 Arizona, #26 Florida, #28 UCLA, #31 California, #35 Clemson, #39 San Jose State, #49 Miami, Cal Poly and Georgetown.
 
PEPPERDINE LINEUP — The Waves’ lineup consists of senior Lauren Gomez (Murrieta, Calif.), junior Jeneath Wong (Melbourne, Australia), freshman Eunseo Choi (Auckland, New Zealand), junior Yingzhi Zhu (Nanjing, China), and freshman Grace Anderson (Burlington, Ontario, Canada). Senior KaYee Kwok (Tianjin, China) will also be competing as an individual.
 
WCC PRESEASON POLLS — The Waves were picked first in the preseason coaches poll after receiving 25 points and five of the six first place votes. The full order went as follows: 1. Pepperdine (5), 2. Oregon State (1), 3. San Francisco, 4. Santa Clara, T5. Gonzaga, T5. Washington State.
 
Additionally, Lauren Gomez and Jeneath Wong made the WCC preseason squad.
 
RANKINGS — Pepperdine sits 49th in the NCAA rankings. Pepperdine was ranked #17 2024-25  Golfweek preseason poll and #24 in the Mizuno WGCA Coaches national preseason polls. In the WAGR, Jeneath Wong is ranked #104 and has ranked as high as #45. Eunseo Choi is ranked #54 and Lauren Gomez is #118 in the WAGR as well.
 
LAST TIME OUT — Pepperdine finished the Stanford Intercollegiate in 10th after posting an 874 (298-289-287).
 
Gomez finished the best for the Waves at 2-over as she tied for 26th and had a three-round score of 215 (74-72-69). Gomez and Wong each tallied one round under par in Palo Alto.
 
TEAM EFFORT — Pepperdine has amassed a 289.92 team scoring average through 12 rounds of action so far this season, impressing with a 72.48 collective scoring average. Though incredibly early in the campaign, that effort is on track to be one of the program’s best. 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 72.53 score in 64 rounds played. Lauren Gomez trails closely behind in third with a career average of 73.06 in her 108 rounds played, and is currently fourth in the program record books with 33 career below-par rounds.
 
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.