BEAUMONT, Texas – The Lamar University women's golf team looks to maintain its strong start to the 2016 fall season when it competes at the Bearkat Women's Invitational that gets underway Monday morning in Huntsville, Texas.
 
This week's tournament will be the third in as many weeks for the Cardinals, who opened the season with a third-place finish at the Tignanelli Towson Invitational before capturing the Bob Hurley ORU Shootout in Tulsa, Okla., last week.
 
This week's event, which is hosted by fellow Southland Conference member Sam Houston State, will be contested on a 6,067-yard, par-71 layout at the Raven Nest Golf Course. The Cardinals finished third out of 15 teams at last season's event with a 51-over-par total of 903. The teams will play 36 holes starting at 8:30 a.m. Monday and an additional 18 holes at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.
 
"Raven Nest is a great golf course. The fairways are wide and the greens are big, so there's definitely potential to shoot some low scores. You have to be careful not to be too greedy though, because missing in the wrong spot could provide for some difficult obstacles."
 
This year's tourney will see a 10-team field. In addition to the Cardinals and host Bearkats, the other participating teams are Alabama State, Alcorn State, Houston, Houston Baptist, Incar­nate Word, McLennan Community College, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Texas Southern. Houston Baptist won last year's event.
 
"Sam Houston State will be a tough competitor, especially on its home course," Steward said. "HBU and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi are also competitive teams in our conference."
 
The Cardinals come in boasting of the Southland Conference's Women's Golfer of the Month for September in the form of freshman Elodie Chapelet, who has a pair of top-five finishes in her first two collegiate events. Chapelet finished fourth at Towson before losing a playoff to teammate Wenny Chang last week.
 
"Elodie has gotten off to a great start at LU," Steward said. "I'm excited about watching her continue to get better."
 
Last week's win was Chang's seventh individual win at LU. LU junior Olivia Le Roux, who finished third last week after holding the lead heading into the final round, gives the Cardinals a potent trio at the top of the lineup.
 
"We're going to focus on making good decisions, sticking to our strategy and being the best versions of ourselves mentally," Steward said. "We want to be contending for another title this week."