Frustration. 

That’s been the main theme of Illinois’ (2-3-0) last two games, as they were matches that should have been won.

“You focus on improvement and focus on the journey as opposed to the outcomes,” said head coach Janet Rayfield. “That’s always, I think, a challenge in these competitive environments in terms of if you focus on the outcome, the harder it is to really get to the place you really need to be to change those outcomes.”  

Two frustrating losses is hard for a team, but team leaders like Hope Breslin, Kendra Pasquale and Eileen Murphy have been able to keep team morale high going into the weekend. 

“They’ve done a really good job of staying in that positive mindset of not where we are but where we can be,” Rayfield said. 

Rayfield also mentioned how Pasquale has been making sure the team sees the good things, to keep working hard to get better and to focus on the process. 

Against Butler, Illinois struggled to retain possession and turned the ball over a lot in the midfield. The high press from the Bulldogs was a main culprit as to why the Illini suffered the loss. 

For Xavier, it was a much more disappointing loss the second time around. Chance after chance Illinois could not finish in what should have been a multi-goal match for both teams. 

Out of 18 shots in that game, only a mere four were on goal. Illinois is looking to be more composed in the final third to bring back the same energy from the first two games where they scored a total of nine goals

“We have to have a better mentality when we get into isolated situations, 1-v-1, and we can go at defenders and get in better places, not necessarily to finish but to serve balls into the box and better angles,” Rayfield said when talking about what needs to be improved upon in the final third. 

With those two games down, the focus is on the road in Ohio starting off with Bowling Green (1-3-1). 

Looking at the Falcons’ season so far, they’ve had a tough start, only winning one of their previous five matches. 

But they’ve faced three tough opponents: Notre Dame, Ohio State and Michigan managing to score only one goal against each team.  

Their only win so far came from a thrashing 6-0 win against Oakland. Both Madi Wolfbauer and Nikki Cox scored braces in the win. 

In their most recent match, they earned their first tie of the season in a one-all match against Big Ten opponent Michigan State. 

The Spartans were leading early on in the second minute and held on until the 88nd minute, when Maya Dean scored the equalizer. Although the game went into double overtime, the tie remained after 110 minutes. 

Heading into Thursday night, Bowling Green has some strengths that Illinois will have to keep an eye on. 

“They are well organized defensively; they play in a little bit of a low block so they just don’t give up much,” Rayfield said. “They’re also very opportunistic when they get the opportunity and chances. Good on restarts, good on the transition moments, so their low block and their transition are really their strengths.” 

The Illini will need some great tone setting from the starting eleven, composure in the final third and a better mentality all around if they want to get out of their three-game slump. 

“I’m hoping to see a really confident team,” Rayfield said. “We did some really great things against North Carolina, we did some really good things against Xavier and created some great chances and we won two games five nothin’ (4-0 Mizzou and 5-1 Illinois State) at the beginning of the season.

“We got to look at those moments and say, ‘Let’s put together all our best moments and step out on the field and play confidently.’” 

The game will be streamed on WBCU-TV and kick-off will start at 7 p.m. in Bowling Green.

@AngelleCortes

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