The Arizona Women's golf team will be competing in its final tournament of the fall this weekend at the Auburn Tiger-Derby Invitational in Auburn, Ala.

Arizona, currently ranked No. 3 by Golf Week magazine, will be facing some of the nation's best in teams in No. 1 Oklahoma State, No. 2 Vanderbilt and Duke, among others.

"A lot of the same teams at Auburn are teams we saw in the Fall Preview," said head coach Greg Allen about his team's season-opening win. "We'll get about a top-five finish."

Allen is expecting tough competition this weekend.

"Duke's a big rival," Allen added. "I feel like if we beat them in a tournament, we're going to have a chance to win."

In its last tournament, the Stanford Pepsi Intercollegiate, Arizona struggled in the first two rounds.

Allen said he believes that mental confidence and the ability to finish tournaments off is what has held Arizona back so far.

Freshman Erica Blasberg agreed.

"We kind of struggled at Stanford a little, but the girls have been working really hard this past week," Blasberg said. "We finished the last round of Stanford really well. We're not going to be real upset if we don't win, but we're still going to try as hard as we can."

Arizona will be led once again by Blasberg, who is ranked No. 2 in the nation and No. 27-ranked sophomore Miriam Kraschinski.

For Blasberg, the Auburn Invitational will be the first tournament she will play in since the first win of her career at Stanford. She also had a second-place finish at the Mason Rudolph Championship.

Senior Laura Myerscough, who played with the U.S. women's amateur team in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, will sit out her second tournament in a month.

"Laura's a help, but she's just a little help," said Blasberg. "The girls still have the ability to pull this tournament out."

Blasberg said that a few teammates miss having Myerscough on the links.

"It's a little difficult not having her, because she's our team leader in a sense. And it's kind of hard missing that," Blasberg said. "She's a good help to the team, not just score-wise."

Freshman golfer Whitney Welch ÷ who suffered a back injury earlier in the season, and who will likely be called upon to assume Myerscough's spot in the tournament ÷ will try to play in her third event of the year.

"If Whitney's healthy, then we've got a chance to go there and play well," Allen said.

Sophomore Mar Garcia, the younger sister of PGA Tour player Sergio Garcia, may be the fifth golfer if Welch is unable to perform.

"Mar's got a ton of talent, but we've just got to get her motivated," Allen said.

Last year Garcia helped Arizona as a freshman, placing No. 22 at the Pac-10 Championships and 75th at the NCAA Championships. Garcia finished 66th at the Stanford Intercollegiate, her only tournament of the year.

This is the final tournament of the Fall 2002 season before the team resumes play at the TRW Regional Challenge in Palos Verde Estates, Calif., Feb. 10 - Feb. 12.