Illinois volleyball needs six victories.

Six more victories will make Illinois eligible for the NCAA tournament. From there, head coach Kevin Hambly will be looking at the season the same way he always does: a quest for a title. But for now, six victories, in fact, one victory — Wednesday night at home against Purdue — is a good place to start.

Earlier in the season, the Illini went to West Lafayette, Ind., and played Purdue to a dead even five sets. The teams each scored 97 points, but when broken down into sets, Purdue got the three set victories and the W on its record. It was a game in which Illinois had a better hitting percentage than the Boilermakers, and one Hambly has said he felt his team should have won, but he acknowledged that it doesn’t matter now.

Now, the unfortunate reality for the Illini is that if they win five of their final eight games, their season ends early.

And for Hambly’s squad, the manner in which that desperation is handled could not be more crucial.

“We’ve been talking a lot about just embracing the challenge. We’re in a position now that we can do something no one else has done before as far as this program,” Liz McMahon said in reference to winning a national championship following the Illini’s start this season. “Change it now so that we can make a run in the tournament that no one has done before. I think it’s really special. Like, you can’t be afraid of that.”

Early in the first set of last weekend’s match against Wisconsin, Hambly benched Jocelynn Birks. After Illinois won that set, Hambly brought her back early in the next frame. He said he was sending a message to try to quell her lack of effort.

“It just wasn’t the standard that we wanna play with, especially in a match that big,” he said.

The message has been received by the Illini, who understand where a lack of effort will get them. McMahon said she expects the changes in the lineup to continue.

“We’ve kinda been doing that in practice, like if he thinks you’re not giving the effort, you’re out,” she said. “You don’t get second chances anymore, or time to learn anything. It’s we need results, and we need to work, and if you’re not doing that every single play, then someone else deserves to be in your spot.”

That fluctuation has been most apparent at the setter position, where senior Annie Luhrsen and freshman Alexis Viliunas split time against Wisconsin before Luhrsen played the whole match against Minnesota.

Hambly wouldn’t say which of the two players will start Wednesday.

McMahon said she didn’t notice much difference in the playing style of the two setters, but the team’s personality changes depending on which player is in. This is due to a difference in the players’ competitive personalities.

“I’m pretty intense. I’ve been that way since I was little,” she said. “I guess my competitiveness comes out in my intensity, and Lex is a little bit more laid-back, and she definitely has a good time. I think that both things are positive, so it’s just kinda what the team needs at the time.”

Hambly benched Luhrsen originally in part because of the way the team was responding to that intensity. This puts Luhrsen in the position of choosing between being herself and acquiescing to the team’s intensity level.

“I think that’s a balance that I’ve been trying to find since high school,” she said. “You do have to dial it down and key in to what your team needs at the time, but you also have to be yourself because you don’t wanna be fake out on the court. … It’s just trying to find a balance, and it’s something I’ll never be perfect at, but it’s something I’m working toward every day.”

Eliot can be reached at [email protected] and @eliottweet.