Coming off of a first place victory out of 14 teams at the 20th-annual John Kirk Panther Intercollegiate at Eagle’s Landing Country Club, the Kent State women’s golf team will travel to The Ohio State University this weekend to compete in the 33rd-annual Lady Buckeye Invitational.

“We’re feeling pretty good,” associate head coach Rob Wakeling said. “The girls have had a good week of practice and they’re getting ready for the weekend.”

The Flashes will compete in three rounds over a two-day period against 11 other teams, including No. 10 Purdue, No. 19 Northwestern and No. 27 Michigan State.

Host of the tournament, No. 47 Ohio State University, has won the tournament 14 times, the most of any school. Michigan State has won the title four times, while Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia and Kent State have won the tournament twice.

“I don’t think you think of [rankings],” Wakeling said. “I just think we’ve got some certain things we’re trying to get certain players to keep working on. As we get ready for the championship season, we always think if they just play their games, we’ll be fine. We should be able to compete against anybody. We’re not too worried about rankings right now.”

During the 2011-2012 season, the Flashes ranked fifth in the tournament after the cold conditions hampered the team’s effort for low scores. Only three of the Flashes were able to break par on the final day of the tournament, securing their fifth place position.

This season, the team hopes to see better weather and a lower overall score.

“I think [the team] will do well this weekend,” Wakeling said. “Really we’re looking to next week’s Mid-American Conference Championships, so we’re just trying to find some good thoughts going into the MAC Championships.”

Competing in the invitational are Jennifer Ha, Erin Hawe, Josee Doyon, Natalie Goodson, Tess Fraser and Brynn Schumacher. Senior Jackie Yanch will sit out the tournament due to injury.

Up next, the team will compete in the 2013 Mid-American Conference championships at the Longaberger Golf Course in Nashport, Ohio.

“We’re working on various styles of shots and certain styles of short beam shots,” Wakeling said. “We’re trying to get back to using the northern grasses and just focusing on some specific shots that we’re going to face in the next few weeks.”

Contact Lily Flynn at [email protected].