After closing out its season with a win over No. 60 Michigan State, the Wisconsin women’s tennis team travels to West Lafayette, Ind., looking to duplicate its success in a rematch against the Spartans in the opening round of the Big Ten Women’s Tennis Tournament.

“It helps that we’re playing the same team we beat at home on Sunday,” UW head coach Brian Fleishman said. “Of course, on the road it’s always a little more difficult, but we match up extremely well with Michigan State. I’m expecting good things.”

The Badgers are seeded 11th in the tournament after finishing their first regular season under Fleishman with a 9-13 record, including a last-place 2-8 record against Big Ten opponents. However, despite its less than stellar conference standing, Wisconsin enters the postseason with plenty of momentum.

After losing their first seven Big Ten matches, the Badgers finished the year convincingly, recording consecutive wins over No. 47 Iowa and No. 60 Michigan State to close out the season. With its first conference victories under its belt, UW believes it is a far better team than its record indicates.

“We believe we can win and beat these teams,” sophomore Katya Mirnova said. “After suffering a few losses against Big Ten teams, these two wins gave us a lot of confidence. I believe confidence is the most important thing you can have going into a tournament.”

Wisconsin’s first round opponent, sixth-seeded Michigan State (12-12 overall, 3-7 Big Ten), seeks to avenge Sunday’s 5-2 defeat in Madison. The Spartans, led by senior Christine Bader, are a tough team capable of advancing deep into the tournament. Recently though, Michigan State has struggled, losing its final four matches of the season. 

Despite the clear advantage in momentum, the Badgers know that defeating a talented Spartans team twice in a row will not be easy. Wisconsin will need to continue to get consistent play from key contributors such as Mirnova, senior Chelsea Nusslock, junior Elizabeth Carpenter and senior Morgan Tuttle, in order to advance. 

On Sunday, Wisconsin got off to a strong start by sweeping the doubles matches and never looked back, cruising to a dominant 5-2 triumph. Fleishman emphasized the importance of reproducing Sunday’s fast start in Thursday’s match.

“We need to get the doubles point,” Fleishman said. “It sets everything going. We did that against [Michigan State] on Sunday and that set the tone for the rest of the match.”

If Wisconsin is able to top Michigan State, it would face third-seeded Indiana (19-6 overall, 8-2 Big Ten) in the quarterfinals of the tournament. In their only matchup of the season, the No. 30 Hoosiers shut out the Badgers. Even so, Fleishman noted that Wisconsin was fortunate to avoid even tougher teams until the later rounds of the tournament.

“We want to go one round at a time, but I think we have one of the better draws out of the lower seeds,” Fleishman said. “If we can figure out a way to beat Michigan State, then we have Indiana, the third seed, which is better than playing Northwestern in the second round.”

The tournament, hosted by Purdue University, is set to run from Thursday to Sunday at the Schwartz Tennis Center.