Three former members of the Pepperdine Waves women’s golf team have secured places on professional tours for the 2026 season. Lion Higo, Kaleiya Romero, and Lauren Gomez, who helped lead Pepperdine to a fifth-place finish at the 2023 NCAA Championship, recently completed their respective qualifying processes.
Higo has qualified for the Japan Ladies Professional Golfers’ Association (JLPGA) Tour after advancing through five stages in Japan. Her results included a second-place finish at Pro Test Stage 1 with a score of 15 under par and a tie for 22nd place at five under par in the Final Stage of the JLPGA Qualifying Tournament. The JLPGA is recognized as one of the most lucrative women’s golf tours globally.
Romero and Gomez both earned spots on the EPSON Tour, which serves as the official qualifying tour for the LPGA Tour and is entering its 45th season. Their journey began with an LPGA Pre-Qualifier in September, where Gomez tied for second and Romero tied for fifteenth. At the subsequent qualifier in Florida in October, Romero tied for eighth while Gomez finished twenty-sixth. In this week’s Q-Series Final Qualifier held in Alabama—an event affected by weather delays—Romero finished tied for fifty-sixth over seventy-two holes and Gomez tied for sixty-seventh.
Pepperdine head coach Laurie Gibbs commented on their achievements: “We are very proud of how Lion, Kaleiya and Lauren have begun their professional careers. The tour qualifying stages were highly competitive and each of them played well throughout. The status they earned gives them the opportunity to plan their 2026 tournament schedules.”
During her collegiate career with Pepperdine, Gomez was named All-WCC First Team four times and won both WCC Player and Freshman of the Year honors in 2021-22. She posted a scoring average of 72.89 across forty-three tournaments, ranking third all-time at Pepperdine.
Higo also received four All-WCC First Team selections and was named WCC Player of the Year in 2023. She achieved fifteen top-10 finishes during thirty-nine tournaments with a scoring average that ranks sixth all-time at Pepperdine.
Romero matched her teammates with four All-WCC First Team honors and was medalist at the 2023 WCC Championships. Over thirty-eight tournaments, she recorded fourteen top-10 finishes with an all-time program ranking eleventh based on her scoring average.
The Waves finished their fall season tied for eighth in national rankings according to Scoreboard National Rankings and will begin their spring campaign at the Therese Hession Regional Challenge from February 1–3 in Palos Verdes, California.
Pepperdine women’s golf has established itself as one of college golf’s leading programs under head coach Laurie Gibbs, making twenty-six consecutive NCAA Regional appearances and winning twenty-one West Coast Conference championships since 1998. Since 2000, fifteen athletes from Pepperdine have received All-American honors with thirty-one total selections.
The team’s upcoming season is sponsored by SVN2 Golf—a Southern California-based indoor golf simulation facility using advanced TrackMan technology to offer realistic play experiences across several locations including Newbury Park, Malibu, Woodland Hills (opening in 2025), and Santa Clarita (opening in 2025). More information can be found at www.svn2golf.com.
