Sept. 20, 2007

EVANSTON, Ill. - The Northwestern women's golf team's season tees off this weekend as the Wildcats travel to University Park, Pa., to compete in the Lady Northern Invitational which is being hosted by Penn State University this year.

Each year, the Lady Northern is hosted at the course that will eventually serve as the host of the Big Ten Championship the ensuing spring. The par-72, 6,300-yard Penn State Blue Course will be the host site for both events.

A total of 14 teams will comprise this year's challenging Lady Northern field including Northwestern, Eastern Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kent State, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Penn State, Rollins, Toledo and Wisconsin. Six of the participating teams are ranked in the top 50 of the current Golfweek/Sagarin rankings.

Competition will get underway at 8:30 a.m. local time Saturday with 36 holes of play scheduled, followed by 18 more holes beginning at 9 a.m. Sunday.

Northwestern returns a solid group from last year's team that finished third at the Big Ten Championship and earned a berth in the NCAA Central Region Championship. Jennifer Hong (Windermere, Fla./The First Academy) returns for her junior year after being named a Cleveland Golf All-American Scholar a year ago and finishing in the top 30 in eight of the 10 tournaments she competed in during the 2006-07 season.

Live scoring will be available at www.golfstat.com throughout the tournament.