When a team has a poor showing, there are two roads it can take.

It can accept its fate as a bottom-of-the-barrel team and learn to live with it.

Or they can slowly pull themselves out and prove that they're better than previously advertised.

The Penn State men's golf team chose the latter, as it went from a last-place finish in its previous tournament in San Francisco, to a third-place, 27-over par finish this weekend at the Big 5 Classic in Philadelphia. The University of Richmond took first place.

The team has its priorities in order too. The tournament in San Francisco was against teams that don't make a difference as far as the NCAA goes. The teams in Philadelphia are teams that Penn State will have to beat in order for it to qualify for NCAA play in May.

"[This tournament] is huge," said captain Greg Pieczynski, who finished individually tied for 33rd with a 13-over par. "Even though they're not big name schools, it's bigger to us because this is the road to the NCAAs."

To make the NCAA regionals, teams must place in the top four of the final regional standings. That's what made this tournament so crucial.

"It was very important to play well in this thing," sophomore Robert Rohanna said. "These teams we'll see all the time, so when we get the chance, we should beat them."

The team fended off plenty of Pennsylvania teams, outlasting the likes of Villanova (fifth), Drexel (sixth), St. Joe's (eighth), Lehigh (10th), the University of Pennsylvania (11th) and Temple (13th).

The team struggled mightily last week without Rohanna, its standout star. He was out with a back injury but came back strong this tournament, carding his best finish at a 4-over par for the tournament, and a tie for fourth.

"We were really looking to shoot good scores today, "Rohanna said. "We were upset about last week and we wanted to show what we can do."

Although the Lions finished well, Rohanna feels the team still should've played better.

"We should've won this tournament," Rohanna said. "We didn't play up to our ability. The conditions were tough and the wind was up to 40 miles per hour today, but we still need to play better."

Those conditions were some of the toughest the team has had to face yet. Even veterans like Pieczynski, who has been playing collegiate golf for four years, were surprised.

"They were probably the second toughest winds I've ever had to play in," Pieczynski said.

"We didn't know the course well and with the wind we really had to adjust on the fly. It's kind of a guessing game."

For the first time all year, every player on the team finished in the top half for individual score.

Marco Poccia, who has been playing very solid his last few outings, matched Rohanna's 4-over par and also tied for fourth.

John Aubrey finished 10-over par to tie for 21st and Harvin Groft tied for 33rd along with Pieczynski.

Although the team didn't get the coveted first place for the tournament, a lot can be taken from their performance.

"We were in contention and it's good to play in the final groups," Pieczynski said. "We were going out to win ... and we almost did."