With a coach returning from Italy bearing a gold medal around her neck and two teammates both touting their respective state amateur titles, there is optimism abound for the Penn State women's golf team this weekend as it plays in the Lady Northern Invitational at Michigan State.

Penn State women's golf coach Denise St. Pierre recently returned from Torino, Italy, where she served as the head coach of the United States team at the World University Games. Team USA beat out Russia and Japan, giving St. Pierre her second gold medal while coaching on the international stage.

On the playing front, senior Maggie Lester, a second team All-Big Ten selection last season, is coming off of a successful summer in which she became the first player to ever win three straight Post-Standard Women's Amateur titles. There she bested the field by a blazing 11 shots. She also won her second consecutive New York State Amateur championship this past summer.

Also capturing a individual state amateur title was true freshman Katherine Murphy. Murphy was the best woman's amateur golfer in her home state of Rhode Island, grinding through two extra-hole matches on her way to the victory.

As was witnessed by the summer performances, this year's crop of golfers has a mixture of steady, veteran leadership and young talent.

Senior Evelyn Paik feels it is good to have a nice mix of seniority and youth.

"Having some fresh faces on the team is always good, especially for those who haven't had much experience yet," Paik said.

Among the returning players, Lester is the only one to garner All-Big Ten recognition last season. But Paik and redshirt sophomore Sara Lester each return boasting sub-80 scoring averages from last season. Paik recorded a 79.4 scoring average while playing in eight events. Sara Lester, meanwhile, boasts a 78.8 average for the nine events in which she played.

The three returning mainstays will be joined by three relative newcomers when they make the trek to East Lansing, Mich. Murphy, junior Christin Pacacha and redshirt sophomore Megan Padua have combined to play in one traveling match in their collegiate careers.

The four-event fall schedule presents Penn State with only one home match. The Nittany Lions play host to the Nittany Lion Invitational Sept. 22, 23 and 24. The season also includes a trip to Knoxville, Tenn., for the Mercedes Legend the weekend on Oct. 13-15 as well as a trek to Wilmington, N.C., for the Landfall Tradition the final weekend of October.

But the season kicks off this weekend and the team has the opportunity to take on 12 teams, nine in the Big Ten. The Lady Northern will give the Lions some stiff tests, but the team is still confident, said Paik.

"We will have some tough competition like Ohio State and Purdue [the defending Big Ten champions], but we definitely have the talent and everyone has been working very hard," Paik said.

Unlike most sports, women's golf season is a wrap-around season. This means that a player's performance during both the fall and spring seasons will affect her national standing and chances of making the NCAA championships in late May. This does not allow the fall to simply be a scrimmage season, but rather, highly competitive from the outset.

So, although the NCAA championships are eight months away, the action for the team gets under way this weekend and the Lions hope to make a statement against their conference rivals.

Said Paik: "Our goal as a team is always to win the tournament, so I believe we are all going into this weekend with that in mind."