MSU rallied from three strokes down to No. 27 Florida State after Saturday’s action, and finished with four players among the top 25 scorers.

The Spartans hope to ride their success into this weekend’s Buckeye Invitational, the final tournament of the regular season and last tune-up before Big Ten Championships.

“This is a good team when we play with consistency,” head coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll said. “We have three or four players who can shoot par or better.”

MSU shot an 868, receiving its best scores in the last two rounds, and was anchored by senior Laura Kueny’s school record-tying second-round score of 68 and junior Aimee Neff’s career-low score of 216.

The win was the Spartans’ third tournament victory of the season, and couldn’t have come at a better time with barely a week remaining before April 23-25’s Big Ten Championships. The Spartans know that if they are to excel in the postseason, their balance will be a key reason for that.

“You don’t want to make mistakes, but if you do, you know teammates have your back,” freshman Caroline Powers said. “I think everyone’s feeling pretty good with the warm weather and everyone’s coming into their own.”

Powers and sophomore Shannon Warner finished 14th and 21st, respectively, while two more Spartans finished in the top 40. The significant amount of contributions at the top has made it difficult for the Spartans to know which golfers will be among their top 5.

In the Spartans’ first-place tournament finish at the Tar Heel Invitational in November 2009, they had five players finish in the Top 40, which has been a theme in their best showings.

This weekend’s tournament will pit the Spartans against eight Big Ten opponents and figures to be about as good of a Big Ten Championships preview as possible. The Spartans have won the event three times but will have their hands full with last season’s champion, No. 22 Ohio State. The Buckeyes are one of only two other conference team currently ranked in the Top 25.

The other is No. 9 Purdue, which won’t be participating in the tournament this weekend.

Since the tournament’s beginning in 1975, Ohio State has won the tournament crown 12 times. The Buckeyes were led by junior In Hong Lim’s and freshman Rachel Rohanna’s scores of 221 in their last tournament, the Bryan National Collegiate Tournament on April 2-4.

The Buckeyes finished in a tie for third place at the tournament behind champion Florida State, whom the Spartans rallied to beat last weekend.

If the team can continue to get contributions from a variety of players and cut down mistakes, the next four weeks should be some of the best the players have experienced in awhile.

“We’ve done it in the past and can certainly do it again,” Kueny said.

Kueny earns weekly conference Honors

MSU women’s golf senior Laura Kueny was named the Big Ten Women’s Golfer of the Week after her performance at last weekend’s Gator Invitational.

Kueny earned runner-up honors after a playoff loss, but tied her career-best score, finishing two strokes behind the MSU record-score of 210.

Kueny tied an MSU single-round record of 68 in the second round, and after falling behind in the front nine of the last round, shot a 31 on the back nine to force a playoff.

The conference honor is Kueny’s second of the season and third of her career.