Fresh off its most recent victory in October’s Lady Blue Hen Invitational, the team’s first tournament win since 2009, the Georgetown women’s golf team looks to maintain its momentum when it competes in the Kiawah Island Invitational this weekend.

The tournament in South Carolina marks the start of the spring portion of Georgetown’s season, the team’s first tournament since the team’s fall season ended on Oct. 26.

“It’s the biggest tournament in college golf,” Head Coach Katie Brophy said. “We’re definitely excited.”

Junior co-captain Patricia Lee echoed her coach’s sentiments.

“This tournament is one of the biggest tournaments in college golf,” Lee said. “I think we’re just excited to get back into some competition, since it’s been a while. We’re excited … and we’re looking forward to some good weather.”

An obstacle that the Hoyas have had to overcome in their training has been the weather, which has limited the team’s practices.

“We’ve been working a lot inside because the weather has been really bad, so we’ve done a lot of short game, like chipping and putting,” junior co-captain Mackenzie Boydston said. “We are trying to get back into it since we’ve had such a long break.

The snow has prevented the team from going to the driving range and golf courses and has forced Georgetown to practice entirely indoors.

“The snow has definitely made practicing a little bit difficult,” Brophy said. “We are really focused on our fundamentals, which is a good thing. But we definitely need to be out on grass … and get back in the swing of things.”

Heading into the second half of their season, one of the Hoyas’ greatest strengths comes from the leadership that their captains provide.

“We have veteran leadership,” Brophy said. “Both Mackenzie and Patricia [are standing out as leaders]. They’re team captains and some of our best players too. Mackenzie had our lowest scoring average for the fall and has separated herself a bit.”

The continued development of a talented freshman class is another crucial factor to the Hoyas’ success for this season and beyond. The class includes two of the Hoyas’ four leaders in scoring average, Jacquelyn Eleey and Lauren Gros.

“We’ve got a really strong freshman class, so I’m looking forward to watching the freshmen in their second semester now that they’ve had a semester of experience,” Brophy said.

Lee has done her best to mentor the young players.

“In the fall, it’s always hard because we have new personalities with the freshman and with other new players,” Lee said. “But over the course of the fall, I think we have all adjusted and adapted really well.”

Going forward, the team has its sights set on winning the Big East tournament championship. Last year, the team finished in second in the tournament — a finish that it wishes to improve upon.

“We all really want to win the Big East title,” Lee said. “We came in second last spring and I think that with the new freshmen and with a lot of the returning players, we have a really good chance.”

Boydston is confident about the team’s chances moving forward.

“I feel like we can win tournaments other than just the Big East as well,” Boydston said. “We’ve done it before, so we know that we can.”