After coming within three points of upsetting No. 10 Wisconsin on the road last weekend, the volleyball team will get a second chance at beating a nationally ranked team this weekend at Huff Hall as they face No. 19 Ohio State this Friday and No. 3 Penn State on Saturday.

But if the team hopes to pull off two upsets this weekend, they will have to go for it without one of their top hitters.

Hardin got word late Monday that redshirt freshman Kayani Turner had a stress fracture in her right leg and will miss the remainder of the season with the injury, another blow to the already injury-prone team.

Turner is one of five other active members of the team that have missed some sort of playing time this year, a factor that heavily affected the team all year.

“Not having Kayani is a big loss to us,” Hardin said. “We got the news about Kayani yesterday and nobody got it. It took five seconds to say ‘damn’ and then jump back in it and go at it. The sad thing is that (the players are) getting used to that.”

The Illini faced Penn State in the first Big Ten game of the year on Sept. 23 in University Park, Penn. and were beaten in three games, but Hardin said a lot has changed since then.

“We’ve gone up and down throughout the year,” Hardin said. “We’ve gotten better and key players have been in the lineup the whole time we’ve gotten better. We’re a better blocking team, we’re a better passing team and we keep improving on our serving.”

Not a lot has changed for Penn State though, as they rank in the top 25 nationally in five team categories: assists per game (15.23), blocks per game (3.42), kills per game (16.47), hitting percentage (.296%) and winning percentage (.913%).

Not only does Penn State play well as a team, three individual players shine for the Nittany Lions. Junior setter Sam Tortorello averages 13.41 assists per game and is ranked 10th nationally, freshman outside hitter Melissa Walbridge ranks 17th nationally with a hitting percentage of .397 and middle blocker Christa Harmotto ranks 29th nationally with 1.45 blocks per game.

In order to beat Penn State, Hardin said the team will have to improve upon the mistakes they made the first time around.

“We have to take care of our side of the net,” Hardin said. “We have to stabilize the areas that we’ve been plagued by all year. The passing keeps getting better.”

Although Penn State is known for consistent blocking, the Illini outblocked the Nittany Lions 8-7.5 in their first matchup of the year.

In Saturday’s matchup against Ohio State, Illinois looks to repeat its first performance against the Buckeyes. Illinois defeated Ohio State in dramatic come-from-behind fashion Sept. 25 in Columbus, Ohio. This win stands as the only Illinois win against a ranked opponent all season.

“Ohio State will certainly have some changes in their game,” Hardin said. “They’ve done really well lately. We may match up well against them, but our blocking has got to step up. We have to have some stops against both of these teams. Both teams have the capability of hitting high percentages because of their strengths.”

Although these two games are against nationally ranked opponents and two wins could help catapult the Illini into the postseason, Hardin said the team should no longer consider a birth into the NCAA tournament a possibility.

“All six remaining matches are critical (for a postseason birth),” Hardin said. “We aren’t even thinking about postseason play. We have no business thinking about that. We’re in no position to think about that. All we should think about is pulling off two upset wins this weekend.”