The teams only count four of the five scores, so they normally use the fifth player’s score from Sunday to break ties.

But because both MSU sophomore Natalie Brehm and Kent State sophomore McKenzie Jackson shot a 12-over 84 Sunday, they went to the fifth player’s score over the entire three-round tournament.

It was then that MSU took the advantage 247-249.

“It’s a great start for us,” head coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll said. “Having a win — no matter where it is — is great, especially at home.”

The team’s finish was exciting, Slobodnik-Stoll said.

“If you’re not charged up after what happened out there today as a Spartan, I don’t know what will get you charged up,” Slobodnik-Stoll said. “They finished great and they came down the stretch and we made up a huge deficit, which is great.”

Freshman Lindsey Solberg shot 2 under par in the final round to finish in a tie for second place in the tournament with junior teammate Laura Kueny, last year’s champion.

“I can’t believe how close it was,” Solberg said. “It was really nice to come out on top and just know that everything we’ve been working for since the summer has paid off.”

The momentum shifted toward the Spartans at the 16th hole Sunday, where Solberg holed her second-straight birdie and Kueny shot an eagle.

“That’s really what made the big swing,” Slobodnik-Stoll said. “It’s exciting that’s what athletics is about, and that’s what you play sports for.”

The team was confident the whole time, Kueny said.

“We knew we could pull it off,” Kueny said. “We have five great players — we just all had to play our game, and it would be all right.”

This is the fourth straight year the Spartans have won their home tournament — their only one of the season.