Most students will kick off their Spring Break Friday, but the ISU women’s golf team will continue their season with no break in sight. The Cyclones will be in College Station, Texas, to play in the Texas A&M tournament. There will be 15 teams participating in the three-day event. The course at College Station is relatively new and only recently opened for play, making it the first time on the course for most of the golfers.

“I’m really excited about playing somewhere new,” said sophomore Kendra Hanson. “But it really doesn’t matter what the course is. You still have to hit the ball straight.”

The Cyclones were disappointed with the results of their last tournament, when they finished 14th overall in the Puerto Rico Classic.

“I don’t think we played to our potential,” Hanson said. “We’re a much better team. It was our first time out and we were hoping to play better.”

Hanson, who had a team-best stroke average of 76.55 last fall, said she was disappointed with her individual performance, as well.

“I had high expectations, and things just weren’t going well,” Hanson said.

Head Coach Christie Martens is confident that Hanson will bounce back this weekend.

“Kendra [Hanson] will for sure come out stronger,” Martens said. “She’s at a place where she’s able to make a decision to take it to the next level.”

One bright spot of the 14th-place finish was freshman Tracy Stanford, who was the low scorer on the team and also shot a personal best round of 76. Martens said she has improved quite a bit over the course of her freshman campaign.

“Tracy [Stanford]’s wedges have improved drastically, and she has very good fundamentals and technique,” Martens said. “She has a very aggressive approach and good confidence. She also made some really good putts. The challenge for her is to continue it to the third round. She lost her aggressiveness a little bit.”

Although the team has struggled, they believe they are close to getting over the hump.

“I think we’re very close,” Hanson said. “It could happen in these next few tournaments. I think we’re all ready to go out in the mid or low 70s, and just start shooting under par.”

Hanson added that she has also set some personal goals for herself this weekend.

“I want to go out and shoot around par, just go out and play confident, and have fun,” she said.

The tournament starts Friday morning and runs through Sunday.