Illinois soccer will search for its seventh win of the season on Sunday as it prepares for a clash against Purdue in West Lafayette. The Illini had a week off from matches and will be well rested in preparation for the Boilermakers.

In their last outing, Illinois suffered a disappointing 4-0 defeat to No. 8 Northwestern in Champaign. Despite an even first half, the Illini could not hold out and fell to a rejuvenated Wildcats team in the second half. Fouls in the box were particularly costly for Illinois last week, as it gave away three penalty kicks that translated into two goals for its in-state rivals.

The Illini are welcoming the short break following the Wildcats, as the team has a chance to refocus before jumping back into Big Ten action.

“It’s a bit of recovery,” head coach Janet Rayfield said of the week off. “The Big Ten is physical and hard. We’ll focus on recovery. We’ve gotta be better in terms of winning the fifty-fifties and better individual defenders.”

In the all-time series against Purdue, Illinois leads with a 13-10-3 record. Recently, the Illini have struggled against the Boilermakers, with only two wins in their last six matches.

Purdue is yet to win a match in the Big Ten this season after five games and is coming off a 3-0 defeat to No. 10 Rutgers. The Boilermakers are in a drought, having not won a match in over a month. Their last victory came on September 4, following a 2-1 result away at Kansas State.

After losing out against a top-ten team, the prospect of facing a Purdue squad with a 29% win percentage is a positive. Despite this, Illinois will need to string together a complete performance of two strong halves to leave West Lafayette with three points.

Conference play was rough for the Illini last year, with the team only managing one total conference victory. Illinois continues to struggle in the Big Ten in 2022 despite a dominant non-conference record. 

A noticeable problem has come in the scoring department, with Illinois getting outscored 5-16 in the Big Ten. The frontline of junior forward Julia Eichenbaum, sophomore forward Maeve Jones and redshirt junior forward Ashley Prell have done well in creating chances, yet goals are hard to come by. The Illini aim to find the finishing touch to turn the current conference campaign around.

Illinois (6-5-2 overall, 1-3-1 B1G) will be traveling to West Lafayette to play Purdue (3-8-1 overall, 0-4-1 B1G) on Sunday, with the match kicking off at noon.

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