There is light at the end of the tunnel and the Penn State women's golf team knows that it is there. The Nittany Lions cruised to their second consecutive top-10 finish in as many weeks, finishing 10th at the Lady Buckeye Invitational at Ohio State.

Michigan took first with 588 strokes, a score Penn State trailed by 46 shots. Ohio State, which is ranked 10th nationally, finished a disappointing fourth on its par-72, 6,201-yard Scarlet Course.

While Penn State's lineup was shaken by injuries, the Lions left with more experience and some of the heavy load lifted from their collective backs. Junior Amber Weinerth, who finished in a tie for 17th, turned in another strong performance, finishing at 5-over par. Freshmen Christin Pacacha and Emily Pavesich brought up the rear for the team but excelled for their second tournament.

"It was a challenging golf course and they learned a lot," Penn State coach Denise St. Pierre said. "The experience was well worth it. They could have done better, but it's on a learning curve."

According to St. Pierre, Penn State has all the necessary equipment to go into the battle, but the team is lacking the courage to play to its full potential.

"We are capable of doing better overall, it's just the matter of getting over the hump," St. Pierre said. "We need more confidence; we played with more fear."

Penn State, which is still a relatively young and inexperienced team, is having a more successful end of the spring season than it did in the fall because of practice, experience and competition.

"We are getting better, we just don't see the results [directly]," St. Pierre said.

Now that the team has finished regular season competition, it turns its focus to the Big Ten Championships, which will be held at Michigan next weekend.

"We just have to continue to get into a rhythm and getting the timing down," St. Pierre said. "We will have to review the Michigan course, since a lot have played the course before."