After winning its first tournament this season, the MSU women's golf team hopes to have success on its home course this weekend at the Mary Fossum Invitational.
"It's a special tournament," head coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll said, acknowledging Mary Fossum's accomplishments as a 25-year head coach for the Spartans. Fossum will be presenting the tournament awards.
The invitational, played shotgun-style, will be Saturday and Sunday at Forest Akers West Golf Course. The two rounds begin at 8:30 a.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. on Sunday.
The Spartans will compete with 16 other teams including Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, 2002 winner Kent State and Notre Dame.
"Everything about playing at home is wonderful," senior Sarah Martin said. "We're plenty deep, we could do a lot this year."
Last weekend, the Spartans finished first in the Badger Invitational in Madison, Wis. Both Martin and senior Allison Fouch finished in the top three of the rain-shortened contest.
"We are playing well now," Fouch said.
Several Spartans are expected to post strong scores. A two-time All-Big Ten player in 2002, Fouch finished second overall in the Mary Fossum Invitational after losing in a sudden-death playoff. The team finished third, its highest tournament finish of the year.
"I'm playing some of the best golf I've ever played," Fouch said. "It's nice to have confidence coming off the summer."
Martin was one of the more consistent Spartans in 2002, finishing in the top 14 in three consecutive tournaments last fall.
The Spartans have added two freshmen to their roster this year. Heather Rose and Mandi McConnell will give the team even more talent, Slobodnik-Stoll said.
Rose hails from a boys' varsity golf team in Chillicothe, Ohio, and has received all-league and all-state honors in the men's league.
McConnell was the 2003 individual Michigan state champion and Michigan's Miss Golf. Every year in high school, she finished in the top three in the state-championship tournament. This summer, she qualified for the U.S. Amateur Championship.
But for one tournament this season, Slobodnik-Stoll is putting thoughts of her talented squad aside and thinking of the alternate joys of this weekend's home-course site.
"I get to sleep in my own bed - it's really familiar surroundings," Slobodnik-Stoll said.
