SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Gonzaga's Grace Lee was named the 2022-23 West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year the league announced Monday. Lee was joined by teammate Cassie Kim on the All-WCC Team. All-Conference selections and major individual award winners were selected solely by the five conference head coaches.
 
Lee placed fifth at the WCC Championships, while Kim finished sixth. Lee is the first Zag to earn WCC Freshman of the Year honors since Quynn Duong in 2019. Kim received All-Conference honors for the second time in her career, earning the recognition in 2020-21.
 
Lee had her best round of the WCC Championships on the third day, carding a 71 (-1) in the final round. She rose two spots on the leaderboard with four birdies and 11 pars in Round 3. It was the freshman's first Top-5 finish of the season, and second in the Top-10. Lee's 37 pars in the tournament were the fourth-most in the 25-golfer field. She had back-to-back rounds of 73 (+1) in the first and second rounds. The Bellevue, Wash., native, finished one-over in the tournament with a 217 total.
 
Cassie Kim was right behind at two-over (218) in a tie for sixth place. The senior also had her best round on Day 3 at two-under (70). She climbed seven spots on the leaderboard with five birdies in the third round, all on the front-nine. The Yakima, Wash., native, had 13 birdies in the event, the third-most in the field. She was also four-under (4.67) on the course's Par-5 holes, which was the second-best average in the tournament. Kim finished at two-over (74) on Thursday and Friday.
 
Kim finished the regular season with a team-best 73.30 average round score, which ranks fifth all-time in program history. She has a 74.82 career round average in 91 rounds, which ranks fourth all-time at GU. She had five of her 10 Top-10 finishes this season, two of her four Top-5 finishes were also in 2022-23. Kim earned co-medalist honors at the Rainbow Wahine Invitational on Oct. 26, and was named the WCC co-Golfer of the Month in March.
 
Lee had the second-lowest season average on the team at 74.50, with two Top-10 finishes. She finished three-over relative to par in 2022-23, with seven par or lower rounds. Lee and Kim matched the team's low round of the season at 67 (-5), both in the first round of the Rainbow Wahine Invitational.
 
After winning the conference title, Pepperdine led the way with five All-WCC selections. Gonzaga and San Francisco garnered a pair of honorees. BYU had one athlete make the All-WCC team. This year's 10-member all-conference team features five underclassmen, two juniors, and three seniors. Higo and BYU's Allysha Mae Mateo earned their third straight all-conference accolades while Pepperdine's Lauren Gomez, Kaleiya Romero, and Riana Mission of San Francisco appear on their second straight All-WCC roster.
 
2022-23 Women's Golf All-WCC Honors
Player Of The Year
Lion Higo, Pepperdine
 
Coach Of The Year
Laurie Gibbs, Pepperdine
 
Freshman Of The Year
Grace Lee, Gonzaga
 
2022-23 All-WCC Women's Golf Team

Name	Institution	Yr.
Lauren Gomez	Pepperdine	So.
Reese Guzman	Pepperdine	Sr.
Lion Higo	Pepperdine	Jr.
Cassie Kim	Gonzaga	Sr.
Grace Lee	Gonzaga	Fr.
Allysha Mae Mateo	BYU	Sr.
Riana Mission	San Francisco	So.
Kaleiya Romero	Pepperdine	Jr.
Yvonne Shang	San Francisco	So.
Jeneath Wong	Pepperdine	Fr.