The Northwestern women’s golf team faced several top-20 squads at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship in Knoxville, Tenn., this weekend, and the result was a seventh-place finish.

“We were in position to beat a lot of teams we weren’t in position to beat in the beginning of the season,” sophomore Ina Kim said. “We played better than we actually placed.”

Kim led the Wildcats with a 13th-place finish, shooting a 79 in the final round.

“Everyone had a few holes we could have done better on,” Kim said, “and when you add that up it, it’s a lot of strokes.”

Junior Lauren Grzebien fired a steady 77-76-77 at the tournament, pacing herself to an 18th-place finish. But Grzebien said she tends not to focus on individual results.

“It proves we can be competitive with the best teams in the country,” she said.

Kim and Grzebien were the only Cats to finish in the top 25. Elizabeth Burden placed 26th.

NU competed in a field of 16 teams, including four top-15 schools: Auburn, Tennessee, Florida and North Carolina.

The Cats also went up against — and defeated — Big Ten rivals Purdue, Michigan State, Michigan and Penn State.

Auburn clinched the title, shooting a 292 in the final round and breezing by the second-day top three. The Tigers tied the third-lowest team total in tournament history.

The other teams to finish in the top five were the Swedish Junior Nationals, Florida, North Carolina and Purdue.

Burden, a senior, said the Cats proved they can shoot well against a strong field.

“We beat a couple teams we haven’t beaten in awhile,” Burden said.

She also said NU showed it can compete with a strong field, including teams it does not usually play.

“It doesn’t sound like the greatest finish, but it was a tough field, so it was a good showing,” Grezbien said.