In an otherwise quiet fall semester for Lakeland University athletics teams, the Muskies' women's golf team will be the school's first squad to get into off-campus competition in the 2020-21 school year when it opens its shortened fall season Saturday.

The Muskies will face Wisconsin Lutheran College in a dual at New Berlin Hills Golf Course in New Berlin at 1 p.m. It is the team's first intercollegiate match in nearly a year, since the team concluded the 2019 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Championship last Sept. 30.

The women's golf squad is the second Lakeland team to compete this fall, following the new Esports team. Like other fall sports teams, Lakeland saw much of its fall women's golf schedule wiped out due to the COVID-19 virus, but is scheduled to play one more dual against Concordia University Wisconsin Oct. 4.

Many of Lakeland's traditional fall sports teams have been practicing this fall with restrictions to guard against the coronavirus, and the women's golf team has been practicing at the driving range and also playing once a week at Whistling Straits.

The Muskies are led by Amber Peterson, who is in her fifth year as head coach of the program and also this year has added duties as Lakeland's head women's basketball coach. Under Peterson, the Muskies have finished in the top three in the NACC Championship each of the last four years.

Lakeland also furnished the NACC's individual champion last year for the first time as Ali Wilson (Lincoln, Ill.) won medalist honors at the championship to also earn NACC Player of the Year honors. Wilson is back for her junior year and also will be competing for the first time since claiming championship honors as a sophomore.

"I think it is super exciting for us to be the first Lakeland team back out and playing," said Wilson. "It is going to look a lot different than previous years with wearing masks, social distancing, and not taking the flag out when putting (but) being out on the course will be exciting."

Wilson is part of an experienced squad of six that includes five returnees from last year. Two of them joining Wilson in playing all ten of the team's rounds a year ago are sophomores and former Edgerton High School teammates MaKenzie Suhr (Janesville, Wis.) and Maddie Perkins (Edgerton, Wis.).

Suhr posted a strong freshman year, ranking second on the team in scoring average and recording a pair of top-10 finishes, including a low round of 93 at the Wisconsin Lutheran Invitational at the same New Berlin Hills course Sept. 22, 2019. Perkins played her best golf at the end of the season in the NACC Championship, shooting her low round of 98 in the second round at the tough Meadowbrook Country Club in Racine.

Ashley Trapp (Cascade, Wis.) and Breann Swain (Vandalia, Ill.) also were freshmen a year ago and competed regularly, with Trapp playing nine of the team's ten rounds and Swain playing six rounds. Trapp also shot her lowest round of the season at the WLC Invitational just under a year ago.

The five returnees are joined by one talented newcomer, as Cameron Lee (Fr.-Pleasant Prairie, Wis.) was a three-year letter winner competing for Kenosha Tremper High School and as a senior qualified for state in WIAA Division 1.