Illinois (2-2-0) will face another Big East opponent, Xavier (4-0-0), on Thursday night in hopes of getting back on the right track, preparing for conference competition and to round off its non-conference home slate.  

“The game plan is to be a little bit more dangerous,” said head coach Janet Rayfield. “I think we had some moments in the Butler game for sure that we didn’t take advantage of.” 

So far, the Illini have fallen in two straight games at home against the North Carolina Tar Heels and a crushing loss against the Butler Bulldogs. 

Xavier is currently on a bright and shining start to its season, as the Musketeers have gone unbeaten in their first four games of the season, grabbing wins against Saint Louis and Northwestern. 

But, according to Rayfield, Illinois isn’t focused on how well Xavier is doing. 

“At this point in the season we’re focused on ourselves rather than our opponent and what their record is,” Rayfield said. “They’re obviously off to a good start, and that’s great for us; we want to keep playing opponents that are going to continue to challenge us in different ways.

“We’re really just trying to come into our own in terms of becoming the best team we can be. We’ve had flashes and moments of kind of the team we know we can be, both defensively and offensively, so our consistency is really what we’re focused on.” 

In Xavier’s four games, they have scored six times, with freshman forward Mathilde Rasmussen leading the way with two goals from the match against Northwestern.

On Sunday, Illinois and Butler were nearly equal on shots and shots on goal, but the Bulldogs were clinical in front of the net. 

According to Chris Henderson of WoSoIndependent.com, Sunday’s game saw the Illini lose 41 balls in their own half compared to Butler’s 16. To reverse that statistic and improve, the Illini have been working on the middle third of the field. 

“There are so many factors into that, but a lot of it is timing and movement and reading your teammates,” Rayfield said. “We worked a lot on that in terms of getting into good spaces, but getting to them soon enough. … So just being able to pick up the speed of our mindset and players getting into those spaces in the moment their teammate needs them in order to play. We’ve got to be able to play a little bit faster.” 

Despite suffering a disappointing loss and performance on Sunday, Rayfield told her players at practice on Tuesday to not let it define them.

“It was a single, 90-minute performance that wasn’t our best, so we kind of got to flesh that down and continue to get back at it and continue to sculpt the team that we want to be,” Rayfield said.

The game will be streamed on Big Ten Network Plus, starting at 8 p.m. central time Thursday. 

@AngelleCortes

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