After a three-month break from competition, the ISU women’s golf team will kick off its spring season this weekend at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic.

Coming off a strong fall season, the Cyclones enter this weekend as the No. 26 team in the country. They are excited to escape the cold air of Ames and prove they deserve their ranking this weekend.

Senior team members Victoria Stefansen and Laurence Herman have the experience of being on the team their freshman year, when Iowa State also had a high ranking going into spring.

“My freshman year we were ranked top 20, and we weren’t really prepared for that, everyone was just so excited,” Stefansen said. “This year it’s more just where we should be, no one’s like ‘Wow we’re ranked really high,’ it’s more us knowing we can be even better than that.”

Herman echoed her teammate’s remarks.

“We’re getting used to being in the position. We’ve been ranked well all year,” Herman said. “It’s just really neat now that people are starting to notice us. We’ve always thought and known we’ve had the potential, but now we are performing and people are noticing.” 

While competition is on top of everyone’s mind, escaping the sub-zero weather in Ames to the beautiful climate of Puerto Rico is an added bonus. However, the team will be competing on a different course from previous years at the tournament.

“I’ve actually been on it, but it is a new course,” said coach Christie Martens. “I think it should set up well for our team. There’s some good par 3’s. I think it should be a good test for them, but it’s also pretty scoreable, so that’s good.”

The players should be able to take it in stride.

“We’ve never played there before, but it’ll be the same type of grass.,” Herman said. “It’s Bermuda grass, which is different than [what] we have in Iowa, but we’ve played on it before. And this year there are a lot of strong teams coming to compete, so it should be really fun.”

One of the teams they will be competing against is Purdue, 2010’s national champions. It will be a good opportunity for the team to see how they match up against one of the elite teams in the nation.

The tournament tees off Sunday and runs through Tuesday.