Lion Higo, Jeneath Wong, Daniel De Jonge, and Tim Zeitvogal earn honors
Pepperdine Waves athletes scooped up All-American accolades in two sports last week.
Waves women’s golfers Lion Higo and Jeneath Wong were named All-Americans by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) on May 26, and Pepperdine men’s tennis players Daniel De Jonge and Tim Zeitvogel earned All-American honors on May 25.
Higo and Wong were two of 50 golfers to recognized by the WGCA as either first-team, second-team, or honorable mention All-Americans. Higo, a junior, was named to the second team, and Wong, a freshman, earned honorable mention status. Higo and Wong are the first Waves to get All-American recognition since 2020. The two helped Pepperdine reach the national quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships last week at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. The Waves reached match play for the first team in team history where they fell to 3-1 to Stanford on May 23.
De Jonge and Zeitvogel, both graduate students, were tapped as All-Americans once they reached the semifinals in the NCAA Doubles Tournament at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla. They are the first Waves doubles team to be named All-Americans since 2021. They are the 50th and 51st All-Americans in the Waves tennis program’s history. They beat two top 25 duos on the way to the semifinals.
Wong defeated Stanford’s Megha Ganne in NCAA Championships match play. Wong received the first point when Ganne bogeyed, then she birdied the next two holes to take a 3-0 lead. Wong nailed birdies on the eighth, 14th, and 15th holes to solidify her win.
Stanford’s Kelly Xu beat Higo. The match was close throughout, but Xu was ahead from the second hole to the 11th. The match tied when Xu bogeyed on the 12th, but she took the lead with a birdie on the 14th. The score tied again after another Xu bogey, but then Higo bogeyed on the 18th hole. Xu shot for par to earn the victory.
Higo had one of the best seasons Pepperdine golf history. She was named the West Coast Conference Player of the Year and earned All-WCC first-team honors. She is the 20th-ranked player in the Golfstat national rankings and rated at 27th by Golfweek. Higo had a Waves record 71.35 scoring average and a record 18 below par rounds. She is also tied for first with 11 top-20 finishes in a season. Higo won two tournaments and placed second at two events.
Wong is ranked 33rd by Golfweek, 48th by Golfstat, and 53rd by USGA. She was also on the All-WCC first team and had a 72.72 scoring average, a new all-time single-season freshmen record for the Waves. Wong’s score is seventh in the Pepperdine record books. She is tied for fourth in Pepperdine freshman history with four top-10 finishes and six top-20 finished. Wong, who joined the Waves in January, also tied for fifth with six below-par rounds.
Waves tennis players De Jonge and Zeitvogel beat NC State’s Rafa Izquierdo and Joseph Wayand 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals to advance to the semifinals and be named All-Americans. The Pepperdine pair was defeated by Ohio State’s Andrew Lutschaunig and James Trotter in three sets in the semifinals.
De Jonge and Zeitvogel won the first set 6-3, but their opponents claimed the second set 7-2. The Ohio State duo then won the third set 10-4 to advance to the national title match.
De Jonge was named the co-WCC Player of the Year with Portland’s Sema Pankin. He was All-WCC first team in singles and doubles with Zeitvogel, who also was first team in singles.
De Jonge is the 12th Wave to be named the conference’s Player of the Year. He had 6-0 record in WCC singles play, with only two of those matches requiring a third set. Zeitvogel was a first team All-WCCer for the second time in his career and has been honored with all-conference recognition four times. The Waves pair was the highest-rated doubles team in the WCC.
Additionally, graduate student Eero Vasa was named to the conference’s second team in singles, and freshman Maxi Homberg was honorable mention in singles. Homberg and Vasa were honorable mention in doubles as well.