CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cleveland State University women's golf team will compete in its first 54-hole event of the season this week as it heads west for the Cardinal Classic. 

The event is hosted by Ball State and held at The Players Club in Yorktown, Ind. The par-72 course will play at 6,204 yards. Teams will play the opening 36 holes Monday, Sept. 17, with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. The final holes will begin Tuesday with a 9:00 a.m. shotgun start. Live scoring will be available by clicking here. 

Cleveland State opened the season by shooting two of the six lowest rounds in school history at the Roseann Schwartz Invitational hosted by Youngstown State. CSU shot 301-299 to finish in third place with a team score of +24. The Vikings were 22 shots better than when they opened the 2017-18 season at the same course. 

Sophomore Madison Butler tied for third after shooting 72-74 and posting +2 (146). She tied for the lead in the field in par-3 scoring. Junior Kaylee Neumeister and sophomore Ashley Knight both earned top-10 showings with scores of +5 (149).

Cleveland State broke the single-round scoring record in the opening round of the Cardinal Classic last year with a 292. The Vikings followed that up with a 299 in the afternoon to post a 36-hole record of 591. CSU went on to finish 11th of 19 teams last season, posting a score of 911. Neumeister opened the tournament with a 70 last year and finished with +9 (225), the best score among returning Vikings. 

There are 16 teams competing at the Cardinal Classic this year: Ball State, Bowling Green, Bradley, Central Michigan, Cleveland State, Dayton, Evansville, Illinois State, Indiana State, University of Indianapolis, Ohio, Purdue Fort Wayne, Southern Illinois, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Western Illinois and Western Michigan. 

The Cardinal Classic has been contested every season since 2001-02, with the exception of 2013-14, although it began as a 36-hole event. The Players Club has been the host course for 15 of the 16 previous iterations. This will be the fourth time in the past five seasons that the Vikings have competed in the tournament. 

Cleveland State will resume action next week at the Golden Grizzly Invitational hosted by Horizon League foe Oakland.