Following an emotional loss to No. 4 Ohio State to close out the regular season, the Wisconsin men’s tennis team will now begin its postseason march this Friday against neighboring rival Minnesota in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament.

Wisconsin finished the year with a conference record of 7-3 and an overall record of 17-8, earning the No. 4 seed while Minnesota takes the No. 5 spot. Both teams have been awarded a bye from first round competition.

By the time the Badgers and Gophers meet in the tournament, not even two weeks will have passed since their last encounter in Minneapolis. There, Wisconsin issued payback from a loss last year, winning the match 5-2.

Badgers at the top of their game

Though Wisconsin came within one match of snapping a multitude of various winning streaks for Ohio State — including 18 consecutive wins against the Badgers themselves — head coach Greg Van Emburgh is pleased to see that his players are entering the Big Ten Tournament just after playing some of their best tennis all season.

“The guys played their hearts out. Our seniors did a great job for us [on Sunday]. I was really proud of them,” Van Emburgh said. “It’s a little unfortunate because it’s the one team that we’ve been unable to conquer so far but moving forward, for us, I think the guys are just really united and I say to them every day, ‘We’re still improving; we’re still getting better.'”

The match against Ohio State proved to be a true testament to how far the doubles game has improved for Wisconsin. Once considered to be weighing the team down, Wisconsin’s doubles unit claimed its fourth consecutive point against an Ohio State squad that did not lose the doubles point to any other Big Ten team this season.

Though Van Emburgh insisted the team is not looking past Minnesota, he noted if Wisconsin moves on to the semi-finals, a rematch with Ohio State would be likely.

“Minnesota’s a great team. We want to make sure we’re ready for them,” he said. “We’re definitely not looking past them, and I believe we’ll have another shot at Ohio State if we get through into the semis there. You just got to keep going after it and swing from the hips. One day, it’s going to fall on our side.”

Baumann expected to be 100 percent

According to Van Emburgh, senior Moritz Baumann — ranked No. 19 in the nation — will be expected to return to full health in time for the Big Ten Tournament after an illness forced him to miss the majority of practice leading up to matches against Penn State and Ohio State.

“Last time, when we played Minnesota that Sunday, we had the following day off, and he didn’t hit a ball again until that Thursday before the Penn State match,” Van Emburgh said of Baumann. “It was kind of tough on him — he was really weak and he ran a little bit of a fever. I don’t know what type of virus it was, but he definitely wasn’t 100 percent, and I think we saw that [against Ohio State] at the end of the third set.”

Baumann, a native of Inzlingen, Germany, will be entering his last postseason wearing a Badger uniform after totaling a 91-35 record in singles over his career.

Though his collegiate career is about to enter its final stretch, Van Emburgh reminded everyone Baumann’s list of goals has not come close to running dry.

“I know there’s a bunch of things he still wants to accomplish in this next month,” Van Emburgh said. “I’m not going to go over that because I don’t want to jinx him, but there’s a lot left out there for him.”