Huff Hall will be the scene of an “Orange Out” on Wednesday night as No. 19 Illinois hosts No. 18 Purdue in a battle for third place in the Big Ten. Both teams enter the match with 5-3 conference records and the contest will be televised live on the Big Ten Network.

But with the way Illinois has struggled when getting too amped up for a match, the added media attention may not be a good thing.

“We don’t focus on that at all,” sophomore middle blocker Johannah Bangert said. “We’re excited that we’ll be on Big Ten Network, but once we enter the gym, it has to be out of our mind and just focusing on our game and how we’re going to play against Purdue.”

Purdue enters the match riding three straight conference victories against Ohio State, Wisconsin and Northwestern. The Boilermakers boast a pair of Big Ten Players of the Week for the second time this season, after senior middle hitter Stephanie Lynch earned the weekly honor and senior libero Kelli Miller was named Defensive Player of the Week.

Lynch had 20 kills while hitting .459 against No. 21 Wisconsin and added 15 blocks on the weekend. Miller posted 20 digs and executed all of her 13 service reception opportunities to lead Purdue to a .352 hitting percentage against Northwestern.

Boilermakers head coach Dave Shondell believes his team has the potential to perform even better.

“We feel like this is capable of being a really good team. It’s kind of the team that we’ve been waiting for, for a couple of seasons, to put on the floor,” Shondell said. “I just think that for the first time this past weekend, we played like the team that I thought I would see this year.

“I think our girls will be more than ready to play just based on the fact we’re playing a great volleyball team in Illinois and it’s a big rivalry,” Shondell added.

The Illini have improved in certain areas the past few weeks, including blocking, in which they are ranked eighth in the nation with 2.82 blocks per set. Bangert leads the conference with 1.61 blocks per set.

But it will be a while before the squad has a chance to get in the gym for a real practice to iron out any ongoing issues.

“Tuesday night we prepare for Purdue, and after Purdue we have Thursday night to prepare for Michigan State, so we have no practice time to get much better at anything. We can’t really improve at anything,” head coach Don Hardin said after Sunday’s win against then-No. 19 Wisconsin.

Instead, the team will have to focus on making in-game adjustments. The task won’t be any easier with the rivalry between the teams.

“We’re bunched in there with them real tight,” Hardin said. “I think it is a big showdown. It’s going to be really interesting. It’s not going to come down to which team is better, I think it’s going to come down to matchups – what one team does well against another team.”