SUWANEE, Ga. -- LeTourneau women's golf junior Kinley Pessel was named the SCAC Golfer of the Year and head coach J. Paul Leslie III earned Coach of the Year honors, as the conference announced its annual major award winners for the sport on Monday.

The awards, encompassing the entire season, were voted on by the league's head coaches and sports information directors.

The award for Pessel caps off the best individual season for a women's golfer in program history. The junior transfer from Marshall, Texas, was the SCAC Championships medalist and earned All-SCAC first team and WGCA All-Region honors. She won a program record five tournaments -- including the SCAC championship -- and tallied seven top-10 finishes across nine tournaments on the year. Her scoring average of 75.90 in 19.5 rounds played set a program season record, while her five rounds of par or better also established a program record.

Pessel -- who ranked as high as No. 23 in the nation this season -- earned first team All-SCAC and compiled quite a résumé within the league. She was a five-time SCAC Golfer of the Week honoree, the most conference weekly awards in a single season in program history and the second-most in a career.

Pessel opened the year with four straight rounds of par or better, including a program record 3-under, 69 in the second round of the Energy Weldfab Tempest Intercollegiate. 

In his eighth year at the helm of the program, Leslie was the architect behind the rise of YellowJacket women's golf nationally. LeTourneau won the SCAC championship, marking the first team conference title in program history, and made the program's first trip to the NCAA Division III Championships. For a fourth straight year, the YellowJackets bested the program-record for team scoring average -- finishing 2025-26 at 320.23 -- and ended the year ranked No. 39 nationally after a 24th-place finish at the national tournament.

LeTourneau won two tournaments on the year, which were the most since the 2002-03 season, and set team scoring records for both a single round and 36-hole tournament. Under Leslie's leadership, the YellowJackets had four All-SCAC honorees. LeTourneau's 45-hole score of 52-over at the SCAC Championships set a program-record at a conference tournament.

Leslie becomes the first coach in program history to earn a conference coach of the year award.

Pessel and Leslie were two of the three major award winners from the SCAC, joining Katelyn Henslee from McMurry who was the First-Year Player of the Year.

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