College Station, TX (CSTV U-WIRE) -- The No. 15 Texas A&M Women's Golf team will take on some of the top teams in the nation this weekend at the 2006 PING/ASU Invitational in Tempe, Ariz.

"These are the types of tournaments that we really want to play week to week," said Aggie head coach Jeanne Sutherland. "We want to play the best teams in the country, and at Arizona State we're going to see that caliber of a field."

No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Arizona State, No. 5 Pepperdine, No. 6 Southern California and No. 10 University of Nevada, Las Vegas are among the 16 teams that will compete this weekend.

"We would love to have head-to-head wins against those (top-ten) teams," Sutherland said. "The better the team you beat the higher your ranking and the better opportunity you give yourself in postseason, so we always like to beat those top teams and those top individuals."

The PING/ASU Invitational is the final competition for the Aggies prior to the Big 12 Championship. Despite the fact that the only other Big 12 team making an appearance at the tournament this weekend is Texas, the competition in Arizona will be a great preparation for Big 12's, NCAA Regionals and Nationals, Sutherland said.

"We're looking for a constant improvement each week, and a continuation of what we've been working on, which is going into each shot with a complete focus on that shot alone, and having the mindset that we're able to win every tournament we play," Sutherland said. "We're going to have to do it through excellence on each shot, not by thinking about winning."

In Arizona, junior Jacquelyn Nemcik will play as an individual, while juniors Ashley Knoll and Christa Spedding, seniors Brenda Norris and Kate Meyer, and freshman Lauren Johnson will represent A&M. The PING/ASU Invitational will be the last regular season competition for seniors Norris and Meyer, but it is just one more day on the green for these ladies.

"I'm more focused on what we have coming up, like Big 12's, Regionals, and Nationals," Norris said. "So really, it's not so much sentimental but more looking forward to the postseason."

(C) 2006 The Battalion via CSTV U-WIRE