LeTourneau Lands Pair of Major Awards in SCAC Women's Golf Recognition

LeTourneau Lands Pair of Major Awards in SCAC Women's Golf Recognition

SUWANEE, Ga. -- Following the conclusion of the 2026 women's golf season, the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) recognized its top individual performers with the release of the conference's postseason awards, as selected by the league's head coaches and sports information directors. 2026 All-SCAC Women's Golf Team 

A breakthrough season for LeTourneau University was reflected in the conference's postseason awards, as the YellowJackets secured two of the SCAC's top three individual honors. Kinley Pessel earned Player of the Year recognition and Paul Leslie was named Coach of the Year after leading the program to its first SCAC championship and NCAA Championship appearance. In that same balloting, McMurry University’s Katelyn Henslee was chosen as First-Year Golfer of the Year.

Pessel, a junior from Marshall, Texas, was the league’s medalist at the 2026 SCAC Championships at Hawks Creek Golf Club, firing rounds of 77 (+5), 72 (E) and 38 (+2) to finish at 187 (+7) for the event – securing a six-shot victory. She finished tied for first in the field with seven birdies and posted 24 pars to earn medalist honors.  

At the 2026 NCAA Division III Women's Golf National Championship at Desert Willow Golf Resort in Palm Desert, Calif., Pessel led the YellowJackets to a 24th-place finish after rounds of 79 (+7) and 81 (+9) for a two-round total of 160 (+16). That same week, she was named All-West Region by the Women's Golf Coaches Association.

Over the course of the 2025-26 season, Pessel, who was ranked as high as third among all Division III women's golfers, 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 75.89 in 19.5 rounds played set a program season record, while her five rounds of par or better also established a program record. A First-Team All-SCAC honoree, Pessel was named the league’s Golfer-of-the-Week five times throughout the course of the year.

Pessel is the first LeTourneau women’s golfer to earn SCAC Golfer of the Year honors.

McMurry’s Henslee, a first-year from Rusk, Texas, was the top rookie finisher at the 2026 SCAC Championships in April, earning First Team honors after posting a three-day total of 195 to post a top-5 finish. The freshman finished tied for fourth among the SCAC Championship field with 20 pars and her three birdies were tied for sixth-best. Henslee closed out her collegiate debut season ranked 90th in the region after posting top 15 finishes in six of her eight events this year, including a pair of top-5 finishes and an adjusted scoring average of 81.6.  

Henslee is the first athlete in McMurry’s program history to earn SCAC First-Year Golfer of the Year honors.

In his eighth year at the helm of the program, Leslie led LeTourneau to a wire-to-wire victory at the 2026 championships, earning the program its first SCAC title with a convincing 31-shot victory at Hawks Creek Golf Club. The YellowJackets placed four golfers in the top-10 to secure the program’s first trip to the NCAA Championships.

A few short weeks later, competing at the program’s first NCAA Championships, LeTourneau just missed the third-round cut as the YellowJackets finished 24th in the nation.

This marks the first SCAC Women’s Golf Coach of the Year honor for Leslie and the YellowJacket program.

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