On top of preparing for Minnesota, the Illinois volleyball team has to account for shortened recovery time this week.

Wednesday marks the first midweek match of the season for the No. 16 Illini (10-3, 2-0 Big Ten), and while the No. 18 Gophers (11-2, 1-1) are a substantial opponent, the bigger test for Illinois might be how quickly the team is able to recuperate after its two weekend matches.

“Generally Mondays are a little bit lighter practice days for us, but with these games we have to come in and do hard practices on Mondays, so we don’t have as much recovery time in between,” junior opposite side hitter Ali Stark said.

On top of giving Illinois less time to recover after playing Maryland on Friday and Rutgers on Saturday to open Big Ten play, the Illini will also be faced with the task of trying to prepare a game plan on a severely shortened schedule.

“We’ve got to get used to this,” Hambly said. “We have to change the way we’re training. Mondays we’ve kind of worked our way into some things and used it as a really big teaching day. It’s got to be used as a scout day for us now.”

While recovery and prep time have been cut because of the quick turnaround, there is a silver lining for Illinois: At least the game isn’t in Minnesota.

Senior middle blocker Anna Dorn said that while playing a midweek match at home makes players want to focus more on volleyball and less on school, midweek matches are significantly more challenging when they are on the road.

“Home games aren’t terrible, but when we’re traveling obviously we’re missing Wednesday classes and then Friday classes,” Stark said.

For midweek matches on the road, the team usually leaves after practice on Tuesday and can be gone until early Thursday morning. This makes it hard on student-athletes who might be missing not only Wednesday classes, but also classes later in the week.

Illinois will play six more midweek matches this season with four of the six coming on the road.

The Illini will take on a Minnesota team Wednesday that is first in the Big Ten in blocks, with 144.5 through 48 sets this year.

In order to have success against Minnesota’s block, Dorn said Illinois will need to limit its number of mistakes, keep the ball in play and rely on what the team worked on in Monday’s practice.

“The biggest thing we focused on in practice yesterday was just swinging high,” Dorn said. “Not bringing the ball down to the level of the tape. When we’re attacking those blockers and attacking the other team — swinging high into their hands, no matter how hard — we’re hitting it.”

Minnesota also has two of highest scoring outside hitters in the Big Ten in junior Daly Santana and sophomore Sarah Wilhite. They rank second and fifth in the Big Ten in kills this season with 187 and 173, respectively.

“They set the outside quite a bit with Wilhite and Santana but the challenge is that they have good balance,” Hambly said. “When they pass the ball well, they have great balance and they spread the ball around.”

While the Illini will have their hands full with Minnesota on Wednesday, the team will need to continue to adjust to midweek matches in the future, which Hambly feels aren’t going away.

“Basketball does it all the time, and we’re going to have to learn how to do this,” Hambly said. “My guess is we’re going to be doing this more, not less.”

Nicholas can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @IlliniSportsGuy.