No rest for these golfers, because it's back on the road for the Penn State women's golf team. This weekend, the team finally gets its first glimpse at Big Ten competition, as the Nittany Lions will compete in the Lady Northern tomorrow and Sunday at the Indiana Golf Course in Bloomington, Ind.

This is the second tournament of the season for the Lions and their first with conference implications. In addition to several conference opponents like Michigan and Iowa, non-conference teams such as Notre Dame and Illinois State will also be in the field.

The team is coming off a sixth-place finish at the Oregon State Invite. Junior Maggie Lester led the Lions in the tournament, finishing 10th place. The lineup for the team will be the same as it was in Oregon. Seniors Amber Weinerth, Katrin Wolfe and Lauren Lundy will be playing, as well as junior Lester and sophomore Sara Lester. In addition, junior Evelyn Paik will be competing on the roster of six.

Penn State women's golf coach Denise St. Pierre is optimistic about the team performing well at the Lady Northern.

"Everyone is playing well," she said. "They are playing well at practices here at home and are excited to start Big Ten play. We have every possibility of playing well this weekend."

In regards to last week's performance, St. Pierre and the team were content with the results. "The team played good. We were fairly pleased with the results in Oregon last week."

The team knows that this weekend will be no walk in the park by any means. Whenever there are Big Ten teams in a tournament, the Lions expect only the best from their conference rivals.

"There is not a bad team in the Big Ten," St. Pierre said, lauding the Lions opponents. "Indiana has somewhat of an advantage because the tournament is being played at their course, and you just don't know which team will show up and how they will perform."

But the Lions know golf is not like most other sports where you are able to determine how the other team performs throughout the competition.

"We can only control what we shoot in tournaments," St. Pierre said. "Not what the other teams shoot. That is up to them and how they are performing."

The Lions plan to make sure they are shooting well this weekend. The team would like to make sure it starts off the 2005-06 season well in the Big Ten standings.