Earlier this week, Illinois soccer head coach Janet Rayfield held a team meeting in preparation for the final home games of the regular season. Rayfield wanted to make the message clear: The team is not just working toward a berth in the Big Ten Tournament, but aiming to win it.

The seniors have heard the message before. Back in 2011, they were the younger players who had not yet experienced what it was like to win a conference title. They and Rayfield now want this year’s young players to know what it’s like. They came close last year, but time is running out for this year’s senior class.

“It’s also playing for each other and realizing that we definitely need one, two wins this weekend,” senior defender and midfielder Kassidy Brown said. “So we’re playing kind of like it could be our last.”

This opportunity is also a rare one: to play the conference tournament at home. The advantage would be especially beneficial to this team because it has performed much better at home (6-1-0) than away (2-5-2).  While this weekend’s games are the last home games of the regular season, the team hopes to not make them the seniors’ last home games ever. 

While they already have one Big Ten title under their belt, the seniors are not willing to let this season slip away from them. Brown has moved into the midfield the past couple of weeks from her usual spot in defense. Fellow senior defender Christina Farrell has moved to the outside as a fullback as opposed to her usual centerback position. Forward Megan Pawloski and midfielder Allie Osoba have been playing more minutes by both starting and coming off the bench. They have also had to make up for key injuries in the midfield.

One senior in particular is feeling the urgency but probably won’t see the field this weekend. But despite the lingering knee injury, midfielder Vanessa DiBernardo has been doing her best to help out in any way possible with the younger players, especially for this weekend.

“It’s a hard thing when you’ve never been through it, and I think just showing them and leading by example is something that you have to do for the younger players,” DiBernardo said. “As seniors, we know what it’s kind of like to work for what you don’t have that’s right in front of you.”

Rayfield will remember this senior class for many reasons. With Senior Day this Sunday against Michigan State, Rayfield will remember how the seniors were leaders not just on the field but in the classroom as well. In recent years, the team has posted the highest grade point average of all the varsity sports teams on campus. Last year, they were one of six Illinois athletic teams to win the NCAA’s Public Recognition Award for Academic Progress Rate. 

While the team will miss the steady leadership this year’s seniors have provided, the impact the players have made is evident. But they still have work to do and as they’ve always shown, they won’t go down easily and that’s more than evident given the legacy they’ll leave behind. 

“Certainly this senior class deserves a huge thank you,” Rayfield said. “They’ve certainly taken this program to places it hasn’t been.”