Fresh off of a season-best second-place finish at the UCF Challenge in Orlando, Fla., the ISU women’s golf team will be back at it again this weekend at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic.

After 18 holes at the UCF Challenge, the No. 22 Cyclones were tied for eighth out of 19 teams, but staged a comeback that temporarily gave them the lead before coming up short by one shot to No. 21 UCF.

“Overall, I’m not disappointed because we can’t control who wins the tournament,” said senior Prima Thammaraks, who led the Cyclones in Orlando with a tie for fourth place individually. “I think we did a great job giving it our best and just knowing that we’re one shot short, it’s kind of a reminder of how close a tournament can be and how much one shot matters.”

Thammaraks also mentioned the team will use the narrow defeat as motivation for Puerto Rico, one of the tougher events on the team’s schedule.

“I think we’ll use it as motivation to be better next time,” Thammaraks said. “Just knowing how close we are is really important and I think it’s a great thing, I’m sure it will really, really help us.”

Iowa State will need motivation, as the Lady Puerto Rico Challenge is expected to be one of the toughest on the team’s schedule.

“Puerto Rico has a pretty good field, they generally have some of the top teams in the country,” said ISU coach Christie Martens. “A lot of them are from warm weather climates.”

Five of the 15 teams in the field, including Iowa State, are in Golfstat’s top-25 ranking, with three inside the top 10. UCF’s field of 19 teams only featured three top-25 teams, with No. 21 Kentucky as the highest-rated team.

Iowa State’s trip to San Juan will also be its third trip in three weeks, though Martens does not believe playing in consecutive weeks will be overly taxing on her players.

“It’s nice at this time of the year since we’re not coming back [from other tournaments],” Martens said. “It lends itself to that continuity because if we take off three weeks in between, it doesn’t have the same effect. It can be strenuous from an academic standpoint, but from a golf standpoint, it makes a big difference in continuity.”

The Lady Puerto Rico Classic will be held Feb. 16 to 18 at Rio Mar Country Club in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.