Pepperdine’s Women’s Golf Team claimed its second straight victory to end the Fall Season, beating host New Mexico State by four strokes as Lion Higo led the Waves by finishing second in the Golf Iconic Classic on the University Golf Classic in Las Cruces, N.M.
The Waves recorded a score of 284-291-284—859, 5-under-par, while New Mexico State was second at 294-280-289—863, followed by Long Beach State at 287-290-289—866, the University of San Francisco at 298-287-283—868 and Oral Roberts at 291-292-294—877.
“I am very proud of how the players prepared and competed in the fall season,” said Pepperdine Coach Laurie Gibbs, whose Waves won the Golfweek Red Sky Classic in Colorado last week and claimed two straight victories for the first time since 2013.
“Lion played great the last 10 days with first and second-place finishes. Kaleiya (Romero) contributed a strong fourth place and all of the players added 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.”
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo was fifth at 293-294-291—878, followed by Texas El Paso at 300-299-286—885, Campbell at 290-298-301—889, Southern Utah at 303-297-293—893, and UT Rio Grande Valley at 299-295-307—901.
UC Riverside tied for 11th at 306-300-296—902 and Cal State Bakersfield finished 14th at 298-313-303—914.
Sarah Bell of Oral claimed the individual title with a score of 71-67-70—208, 8-under-par, while Higo, a junior from Australia who won the Red Sky Classic in her last start, was second at 70-69-72—211, followed by Jasmine Leovao of Long Beach State at 67-70-75—212, while Romero of Pepperdine shot 69-73-71—213 to tie for fourth with Ludie Charbonnier of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, who wound up at 73-72-68—213.
Eva Pett of San Francisco totaled 73-70-71—214 to tie for sixth with Valentina Origel of New Mexico State, who finished at 73-68-73—214, while Tiffany Le of UC Riverside posted a score of 73-73-69—215 to tie for eighth with Alison Gastelum of New Mexico State, who wound up at 71-69-75—215, while Hannah Ko of Long Beach State was 10th at 73-72-71—216.
Arlene Faye Salvador led Cal State Bakersfield in a tie for 11th at 70-72-75—217, while Elizabeth Scholtes of Cal Poly SLO tied for 23rd at 77-72-71—220.
Rounding out the scoring for team champion Pepperdine were Reese Guzman in a tie for 11th at 74-73-70—217, Lauren Guzman in a tie for 18th at 72-76-71—219, and Jenny Zhu in a tie for 32nd at 73-76-73—222.
The Waves open the Spring Season in the Therese Hession Regional Challenge at Palos Verdes Golf Club in Palos Verdes Estates on Feb. 12-14.
For complete results, visit https://results.golfstat.com//public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=team&tid=25593
