Heading into just its second tournament of the young spring season, the women’s golf team could have let rust be a factor at the Buccaneer Invitational in Miami Shores, Fla. Fortunately for Grand Valley State University, the Lakers blew away the field winning by an impressive 27 strokes.

“I think we all deep down inside believe that we can beat anyone,” said senior Ashley Smith. “If we’re all playing well on the same day (which is what we did this week), we’ll be very tough to beat. When we come together like that, we’re definitely unbeatable.”

The Lakers used a balanced attack against the field as all five players shot rounds of 302 and 296 to garner top-10 finishes. With bad weather conditions halting play until Tuesday morning, the 54-hole tournament was reduced to 36 holes.

GVSU sophomore Sarah Hoffman was the tournament medalist as she shot a two-round score one over (145).

“I really liked the greens and felt I read the putts well,” she said. “When I was putting the ball, I just had confidence it was going to go in.”

The 296 second round score by the Lakers was one short of the school record. The Lakers rounded out the top-10, which included Smith (third-place, 149), senior Caitlin Bennett (sixth, 153), junior Allie Tyler (ninth, 157) and freshman Ashley Beard (T-10th, 158).

“To be shooting a 296 this early in the spring is definitely something to be proud of,” said GVSU head coach Rebecca Mailloux. “The course was set up long (playing more than 6,200 yards) and the weather conditions weren’t that ideal. It was truly a standout round for us.”

As Hoffman took home top individual honors, Mailloux also added it was no surprise to see her perform the way she did on Tuesday.

“She’s a very hard-worker,” Mailloux said. “She’s been working really hard (over the winter) and leading up to this event, and it’s definitely paid off. Her game from when she got here until now is remarkably advanced, and we’re proud of her.”

The team also received a huge lift from Beard, who helped replace Tyler’s disappointing opening-round score of 81 by firing a 75.

“That’s a big confidence boost for her and for our team when someone steps up like that,” Mailloux said. “You never know when those (top four) are going to have a bad day. To have those girls step it up and throw someone’s round out for that day, it’s huge and gives us confidence going into the rest of the season.”

Playing against a field of mostly Florida schools, the Lakers finished 36 strokes ahead of host Barry University, who came into the tournament as the fifth-ranked team in the country.

With already one first-place and second-place finish into the early season, Mailloux said team consistency remains solid, but the team needs to remain hungry in the future.

“We just never want to get comfortable where we’re at,” Mailloux said. “We don’t want to get settled in and thinking good is good enough. We just have to keep pushing and getting better and realizing that when it counts, we need to be ready.”

The Lakers will have a week off until they head to the Springfield, Mo., to compete in the Lady Panther Spring Shootout on April 10 and 11.

[email protected]