With the Big Ten championship out of reach, the Illini soccer team has refocused its goals for its last four games of the season.

The Illini will get a chance to work on those goals starting this weekend when they host Purdue on Friday at 7 p.m. and Indiana on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Illinois Track and Soccer Field.

The team’s biggest goal is to finish at the top of the middle of the pack in the Big Ten standings. In conference standings going into the weekend, only one game separates fourth and eighth place.

“These next three games, we want to separate ourselves from the middle,” said Illinois head coach Janet Rayfield. “Right now, there is not much separating us. We want to be up there with the better teams in the conference.”

The Illini are on top of that group right now at fourth place with a record of 4-3 and 10-4 overall. Friday’s opponent, Purdue, which is only one game behind the Illini, is tied with Northwestern for eighth place in the league with a record of 3-4. Indiana is in fifth place with a record of 3-3-1.

Pride will also be on the line for the Illini.

“We want to make sure everyone knows that we are still one of the best teams in the Big Ten,” said freshman Ella Masar. “We proved that we can play with some of the best teams in the Big Ten and the country. We need to get back on track, so we can finish right there to show them.”

With this weekend’s matchup, the Illini will get to see how good a team they can be, especially after losing two games last weekend to Ohio State and Penn State.

“We just have to play,” said freshman defender Mary Therese McDonnell. “How we react from what happened last weekend will determine what kind of team we are and what will make the difference.”

Rayfield said in order to finish in fourth place, the Illini are going to have to sharpen up their defense, which allowed five goals last weekend against Penn State and Ohio State.

“If you look at the conference standings, the teams at the top are not giving up goals,” Rayfield said. “In these next three conference games, that will be a focus of ours. We cannot allow five goals in a weekend.”

To match that, the Illini are still not putting goals on the board. All season they have not been able to execute against quality opponents. Last weekend, the Illini were held scoreless.

“We just need to put the ball in the net,” Masar said. “To do that, we all need to get on the same page. I think we just need to play more as a whole group, instead of thinking about three different sections, like offense and defense. If we play as one, it will put all our troubles away.”

Losing both games last weekend took the Illini out of Big Ten title contention, but they still have to pay attention to detail as they close out the season.

“I don’t know if losing last weekend has taken pressure off us,” Rayfield said. “It’s more of a magnifying glass. Now, we only have four games remaining and we can focus our goals on just the next four games.”