In its first three games, the Illini soccer team had a target on its chest. When the 13th-ranked Illini compete against Wright State on Friday then Miami (Ohio) on Sunday in the Clash of the Conferences Tournament, that target will be even bigger.

The purpose of the tournament this weekend is to give some of the top soccer teams in smaller conferences an opportunity to prove themselves against some of the best programs in larger conferences.

“Both of these teams have something to prove,” said Illinois head coach Janet Rayfield. “There is a lot of battling in collegiate soccer between the smaller conferences and the big conferences. We want to win for pride and for the Big Ten.”

Wright State comes into Friday’s action with a record of 2-2 and a reputation for having a strong defense. Wright State is coming off a victory over Marshall 1-0 and Miami (Ohio) 2-0 earlier in the season. In that game, Wright State’s goalkeeper did not have to make one save.

Miami has a record of 2-1 and was dealt its only loss by Wright State in its season opener. Since then, the Red Hawks have scored five goals, coming away with two victories and a first place finish in the Spartan Classic hosted by San Jose State. The Red Hawks are led by Mid-American Conference Player of the Year Ashley Swinehart at forward.

“You have two non-Big Ten teams trying to knock off the Big Ten team,” Rayfield said. “I feel like both of these teams are capable of competing in the Big Ten. Both of them have put up a lot of goals and both of them have recorded shutouts. The stakes are huge for them and they will come in with that emotion.”

The stakes for their opponents may be high, but the Illini don’t want to get involved in the hype of the tournament.

“We don’t even worry about ‘the Clash’ or our opponents,” said sophomore forward Jessica Bayne. “Every team for us is a challenge – it doesn’t matter which conference they are from.”

The focus for the Illini will be on themselves.

“We’re looking to get better every game,” Bayne said. “We are always trying to improve our defense. Our team is very focused on keeping teams off the scoreboard, so we want to come away with two shutouts.”

Along with the defense, the Illini would like to improve their offensive attack.

“We need to finish on our scoring opportunities,” said freshman forward Ella Masar. “Our percentage hasn’t been that great. We’ve been creating lots of opportunities, but we haven’t been putting them in. If we are able to, we’ll be capable of beating our opponents by six or seven.”

In their first two road games last weekend, the Illini were victorious 2-0 and 4-0. They would like to continue their success away from Champaign.

“One of our goals when we started the season was to have no out-of-conference losses on the road,” Rayfield said. “We want to try to maintain that goal this weekend.”