While most Illinois students will be bundled up this weekend, the softball team won’t be.

For the third straight weekend, the Illini will play in a road tournament, this time in the Mary Nutter Colegiate Classic in Palm Springs, Calif. They’ll face four teams that have all been ranked at some point in the season.

“It’s exciting to go to all these different parts of the country,” senior pitcher Pepper Gay said. “Not many people can say they do that, so we take full advantage of the opportunities we have, and we love playing on the road.”

Illinois’ schedule for the weekend is by no means a breeze. The Illini will play No. 22 Washington and Oregon State on Friday, before facing No. 8 California on Saturday and Georgia Tech on Sunday.

“Everyone knows our philosophy, we play the best and we’re not looking for any cupcake schedule,” head coach Terri Sullivan said. “Our young players, we say we throw them right to the fire, it’s great competition, quality competition … (and) each weekend we’ve opened up against a top-five team and have had an opportunity to do something special. Every time there’s a challenge, there’s an opportunity, and this weekend we want to grab some of those opportunities.”

The team will play three night games in as many days, which Sullivan says has the Illini excited.

“All players love night games,” Sullivan said. “Pitchers feel like they throw a little bit harder, and it’s fun playing under the lights, but the bottom line is winner’s win. They win when they play at 9 in the morning, which we do, and they win when they play at 10 at night, which we do, they win in rain, sleet, sun, whatever matters, winners win.”

The Illini were up and down in their last tournament, finishing the weekend 2-3 with wins against in-state rival DePaul and Houston and two losses to No. 6 Texas.

“I really like how we responded toward the end of the weekend. At this level, you have to be able to give punches and take punches and I thought we did that especially in the final game on Sunday. We were really tested last weekend, and we came up short a couple times and now we just need to close things out and really get that consistency going in the third tournament of the year, which will be a huge challenge with tremendous competition.”

To be more consistent, Illinois has been taking as many reps as possible in its practices this week.

“It’s really a coach cliche to say, but the way you play has a lot to do with the way you practice,” Sullivan said. “We want quality reps and at this level — taking care of the ball is so big. We always say playing a high level of catch is the foundation of a good defense and some drops or poor throws have put our back against the wall a couple times this season and against the competition. We play if we give them too many opportunities to have second chances that can hurt you. Again it’s practicing hard and focusing and playing in the moment and the simple fundamentals of softball.”

The Illini continue to fine-tune all aspects of the game to improve every week.

“We want to make those routine plays,” Sullivan said. “Throw the ball, catch the ball, we want our pitchers to throw strikes. When they throw strikes, the best of the best aren’t hitting them, and we want to execute our offensive game plan.”

Illinois has also been trying to jell as a team.

“We’re really just working on coming together,” sophomore Jess Perkins said. “Finding our chemistry and going out strong. We have to trust each other, know that we all have each other’s backs, and if we do that, we’ll win this weekend.”

Nicholas can be reached at [email protected] and @IlliniSportsGuy.