With one game left and a chance to break even on the season, the Illini soccer team has one thing on its mind — pride. Though the Illini (7-8-3, 2-5-2 Big Ten) may be a longshot to win an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament, head coach Janet Rayfield and her players indicate they won’t be looking toward next season just yet. Going into tonight’s finale at Northwestern, the Illini are only focusing on the present.

“This is still really about right now,” head coach Janet Rayfield said. “You don’t want to write this season off, there have been teams with an 8-8 record that get in. … We’ve got a long time to wait before we start thinking about next year, and we’ll do that once this season’s over.”

The Illini will look to exploit a Northwestern team that has struggled to produce offensively this season. The Wildcats (6-10-2, 2-5-1) have averaged a Big Ten-low 0.78 goals per game and have been shut out eight times this season. Those numbers, plus the fact that the Wildcats play a 4-3-3 formation that puts less of an emphasis on the midfield could provide for a friendly set of circumstances for the Illini.

Finishing around the net figures to be crucial for the Illini, as the team failed to do so in Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Michigan. In that contest, the Illini were held scoreless by redshirt freshman goalkeeper Haley Kopmeyer despite the Illini’s 11 shots.

Regardless of whether the game has NCAA Tournament implications, junior Krystin Miller says that the game means more than tallying a win.

“I think honestly from this game we’re going to learn how to play with pride and what it means to wear the ‘I’ on the chest,” she said. “It’s definitely going to be emotional, but we have to look behind it, it’s another game, and we have to bring everything that we’ve learned this season and implement it in these next 90 minutes.”

Senior Courtney Bell, one of four seniors who could suit up for the Orange and Blue for the last time, said this week has been about working hard to finish strong, while enjoying their final regular season game as a team.

“(We’re) just playing for pride at this point and just being able to compete with each other (potentially) just one last time,” she said. “Everyone on this team is a competitor, so (we’re) just looking forward to playing one last game and going out for a win no matter what … I think we’ve all just been trying to enjoy it. We always love being around each other, so any time we get to be with one another … out on the field is good.”