The coaches and players knew it all along. They knew that for the Illinois soccer team to make it to the Big Ten Tournament, they would have to survive a grueling season that would be tight all the way.

With a Big Ten record of 4-5-1 and an overall record of 9-7-2, the Illini are tied for ninth in the Big Ten standings with Iowa and Wisconsin. Only the top eight teams will go on to compete in the Big Ten Tournament, which will be held Nov. 6-10 in Champaign. Since Illinois beat both Wisconsin and Iowa, they hold the tiebreaker even though Illinois has a worse overall record. So if the Illini win at Minnesota this Thursday, Oct. 31,, they are in the tournament.

“We’re really just focused on recovering,” junior midfielder Allie Osoba said. “Each win gets us one more game, so that’s kind of what we’re focusing on.”

The team is continuing to follow its goal of “one game at a time,” as it has done all season.

“We’re going to go in there like we have every Big Ten game,” head coach Janet Rayfield said of the Minnesota contest. “We want to be solid defensively. I know it’s a good team playing on their home field.”

Fortunately for the Illini, the game is scheduled for 2 p.m., so it will not be a long day for the team.

DiBernardo still questionable with knee injury

Sunday, senior midfielder Vanessa DiBernardo saw her first minutes on the field since Illinois’ Sept. 27 match against Iowa. She was only in for a few minutes in honor of Senior Day. Her sprained knee, which she had in a brace, has been a lingering question ever since she injured it.

“It was fun to see her out there,” Rayfield said. “But we gave her specific instructions not to tackle anyone.”

Last week, Rayfield said DiBernardo had made more progress the past week than she had in the previous two. She has been running and partially participating in practice but was not in game shape last weekend.

This week, the questions remain as Rayfield has yet again given the “we’ll see” response, but the odds are not entirely against seeing DiBernardo for the first time in a month this week.

“We’d love to see her out there on Thursday and there’s certainly a chance of that,” Rayfield said. “We’ve got to get her in a little more intensive training environment before we can know whether she’s ready or not.”

Defensive discipline seems to have improved

Not since its Sept. 15 match against Florida International has the Illinois defense shut out an opponent. But on Sunday against Michigan State, the Illini won 2-0. Whether it was a sense of urgency or desperation, players of all positions chipped in to the defensive effort Sunday for one of the best overall defensive showings of the season.

“I think we talk a lot about defense being the back four and the goalkeeper,” Rayfield said. “But today that defense really was our midfielder and our forwards doing a lot of work trying to deny service.”

Even on Friday night in the 2-0 loss against No. 7 Michigan, the defense made it difficult for one of the most dangerous players in the Big Ten, Nkem Ezurike, limiting her to only an assist. Defenders like freshman Casey Conine stepped up and showed that the still maturing defensive unit won’t back down to anyone.

“I think we did a good job disrupting their flow,” Conine said. “It was bad they scored, but it was off a fluke accident and a restart, so they weren’t really pounding us.”

Alex can be reached at [email protected] and @AlexOrtiz2334.