The Iowa women’s golf team is headed to the Big Ten Championships at Fox Chapel Golf Course in Pittsburgh this weekend. The Hawkeyes will compete in one round on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday against the rest of the conference.

Iowa’s lineup consists of five underclassmen and senior Jordan Amelon. Along with Amelon, the Hawkeyes will be represented by freshmen Riley Lewis, Madison Dabagia, Kaitlyn Hanna, and Shannyn Vogler, as well as sophomore Paula Miranda. All 14 Big Ten teams will be in the field.

Miranda is the only player in this weekend’s lineup with prior experience at the conference tournament, as she finished in a tie for 64th last season at the same venue.

Head coach Megan Menzel said her squad is preparing for this week’s event the same as any other tournament.

“I think we’ve been really focusing on some key things,” Menzel said. “I’m kind of a big believer that we’re kind of trying to just keep this the same. There’s already enough excitement and a big stage … I think we’re just continuing to preach the same things that we’ve been doing, and we hope to kind of be peaking at the right time.”

Menzel said those key things include driving accuracy, hitting greens, and dialing in speed on the greens.

Vogler, who has led the Hawkeyes individually in each of the last two tournaments including a tie for 27th overall at the Lady Buckeye Invitational last weekend, said putting has been a focus in preparation for her first Big Ten Championships.

Vogler said she will lean on her experience in other big-time events this week in Pittsburgh. She has played in three U.S. Girls’ Junior Championships, a Junior Girls’ PGA Championships, and the 2022 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship.

“I think all of the tournaments we’ve played, there have been some good teams there,” Vogler said. “It’s just another golf tournament, everyone’s going to do the best they possibly can and so do I. So, it is a big tournament, but I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of experiences playing in elite tournaments. I think that all of that has helped me prepare for this.”

The Lady Buckeye Invitational, at the well-known Scarlet Course in Columbus, also helped the Hawkeyes prepare for the conference championships. Thirteen of the Big Ten’s 14 teams were there and the conference’s five ranked teams — Ohio State, Michigan State, Maryland, Purdue, and Michigan — finished first, second, fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively. Iowa placed 11th, in front of Nebraska, Indiana, and Rutgers.

“I think it was really good for us to go to Ohio State last week, be around all those teams, you know, see what that felt like,” Menzel said. “It was definitely a Big Ten preview, if you will, on a really tough golf course.”

Menzel said her goal for her team is to put together three solid rounds something she said the Hawkeyes have struggled to do this year. She said her squad has shown the ability to play as well as many of the conference’s teams for one or two rounds of a tournament but hasn’t done so for a full event yet.

“We’re just hoping that they’re primed and ready to put out their best performance of the year and we feel like if we do that, we’ve shown that we can compete with a lot of these teams,” Menzel said. “We haven’t done it for three rounds, but, you know, we keep saying hey, ‘If we can do it for one or two, you know, why can’t we do it for three?’ I think it’s just them believing and you know, being calm and steady in those in those situations.”

Play will begin at 7:30 a.m. in rounds one and two, and 7 a.m. for the final round. Live scoring can be found at golfstat.com.