FRISCO, Texas – UCLA women’s golf head coach Alicia Um Holmes has been named to the Jackie Steinmann WGCA National Coach of the Year Watch List. The Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) announced the watch list of 19 NCAA Division I head coaches Tuesday afternoon.
Um Holmes, in her fourth season as head coach, led the No. 11 Bruins to a pair of top-three finishes during the team’s fall 2026 schedule. UCLA finished runner-up in its fall finale at the Nanea Invitational in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, on Oct. 27, placing ahead of three ranked programs in the process: No. 5 Stanford, No. 11 Texas and No. 16 Texas A&M. The Bruins also placed third out of 11 teams at the Canadian Collegiate Invitational on Sept. 22.
UCLA had three different student-athletes register multiple top-10 individual finishes in the fall: Kacey Ly (three times), Jen Lee (twice) and Michelle Xing (twice).
Ly has nearly matched the four top-10 finishes from her 2025-26 Big Ten Freshman of the Year campaign. She leads UCLA with a 71.6 scoring average over the team’s 12 rounds. Ly concluded the fall season ranked No. 24 in the Scoreboard poll and No. 88 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Xing earned medalist honors in her first collegiate event at the ANNIKA Intercollegiate on Sept. 9 with a score of 9-under 207 (70-72-65). Xing’s final-round 65 tied the UCLA freshman 18-hole record, joining Bronte Law, Mariajo Uribe and Jane Park, and marked the lowest round ever by a Bruin in her first collegiate tournament.
The honor is named for former UCLA women’s golf head coach Jackie Steinmann, who founded the WGCA in 1983. Steinmann, a UCLA Athletic Hall of Famer, led the Bruins to their first NCAA Championship in 1991 during her 22-year tenure from 1977-99.
UCLA resumes its season with a friendly match play contests versus USC in the Battle of LA at Indian Wells Golf Resort on Jan. 22, 2027.
Jackie Steinmann WGCA National Coach of the Year Watch List
South Region:
Melissa Luellen – Auburn University
Janice Olivencia – University of Miami
Kory Henkes – University of Mississippi
Kalen Anderson – University of South Carolina
Diana Cantu – University of Tennessee
East Region:
Ria Scott – University of Virginia
Kim Lewellen – Wake Forest University
Dan Brooks – Duke University
Erika DeSanty – Princeton University
Carol Robertson – Virginia Tech University
Central Region:
Laura Ianello – University of Texas
Gerrod Chadwell – Texas A&M University
Shauna Taylor – University of Arkansas
Christie Martens – Iowa State University
West Region:
Justin Silverstein – University of Southern California
Anne Walker – Stanford University
Derek Radley – University of Oregon
Missy Farr-Kaye – Arizona State University
Alicia Um Holmes – University of California, Los Angeles