CHAMPAIGN – Fighting Illini Soccer kicked off the 2018 campaign on Friday with an exhibition match against the Butler Bulldogs. The Orange and Blue fired eight shots throughout the match and junior goalkeeper Jaelyn Cunningham grabbed four saves to start the year. Despite a strong showing from the UI defense, Butler netted two goals in the second half to earn the exhibition victory.
"This was a good exhibition game for us against a good team that returned a lot of starters from last year," head coach Janet Rayfield said. "I told the team after the game, just like the first day of preseason, I like what I see; this is a good starting point, and now we have to get to work. We've worked at becoming individual players and individual units during preseason and now we've got to put that together on the field. I think we can do that in this short turnaround and really keep improving."
"I think there are certainly some bright spots that we will take and build on," Rayfield continued. "We'll look at some of the places where we could've been better and go over how to fix those, but I think there were enough bright spots for us to say, take that light a add it to other places. Irrespective of what happens against Cincinnati, what I saw tonight is a team that should be confident that they can go compete with any team in the NCAA."
The Orange and Blue will travel to Cincinnati on Sunday to take on the Bearcats in the final exhibition matchup of the season. The game is set for 12 p.m. CT, and will be held at Gettler Stadium. Admission to the game is free, but parking is $5 per car surrounding the stadium.
"I think that games are the best teacher," Rayfield said. "If you scrimmage against yourself, you know what you're trying to do. This is another opportunity to play against a team who doesn't know us and who we don't know, so that we can become better problem solvers. They will give us something different to solve, another test for us is good. I think with these two scrimmages and with the effort that this team has put into preseason, we should go into the North Carolina game confident that we can compete."
Illinois will open regular season play at North Carolina on Thursday, August 16. The game is set for 4 p.m. CT.
Stay tuned to FightingIllini.com for the latest on Illinois soccer.
