Friday marks the first round of the 2016 Big 12 Women’s Golf Championship in San Antonio, Texas, for the ISU women’s golf team. The Cyclones will start the tournament ranked No. 17 in the nation and with two players ranked inside the top 100, according to golfweek.com.

Iowa State is excited and optimistic about its chances, but knows it needs to keep itself focused to perform well.

Freshman Chayanit Wangmahaporn is excited and confident in her preparations for the tournament.

“Actually, I think everything in my game has improved since the beginning of the season,” Wangmahaporn said. “The thing we have to work on is our mentality and how we prepare. We need to make sure we get it from the start.”

Head coach Christie Martens described how the team is preparing mentally and physically for the championship.

“I don’t think the mentality is any different for us than during the regular season,” Martens said. “I think our preparation has been peaking us to this point. It’s the things that we’ve been working on to get us to a point where were playing our best at this point in the season.”

That preparation has shown in each golfer’s games as the season has progressed. In nine regular season tournaments this season, the Cyclones managed a fifth or better finish in six of them, including two second-place finishes in two of the last three tournaments.

Wangmahaporn hopes the team will use the success of the regular season to its advantage.

“I think the success that we’ve had in the regular season will help us feel more confident in the championship,” Wangmahaporn said. “Everyone when they play well has a great shot that they remember felt good. Then when everyone goes out again they can use that good memory to play well.”

The Cyclones will not be without a good amount of competition in San Antonio. The Big 12 Conference is home to four other teams ranked inside the top 50, including No. 9 Oklahoma State and No. 26 Texas Tech.

Martens said the team is ready for any minor setbacks a golfer might experience in a round.

“I think that’s why we’ve been so consistent,” Martens said. “When one of our players has an off round, we have four other players that are playing really well. That has somewhat been our trend throughout the whole year. We have really tried to make that a part of our team, that no matter what happens, or whatever adversity hits, that we’re going to rebound from that and come back.”

The Cyclones will open championship play Friday and play through Sunday. Check back with the Iowa State Daily for round coverage and results.