The two Spartans seniors, Adam Monich and Nick Rinks, dropped the last regular-season matches of their careers against the Badgers.

“I think I made too many errors,” Rinks said of his 6-3, 6-3 loss to No. 55 Moritz Baumann. “I feel like (Baumann) was a good player but I think I could have played a lot better for my last time at home. I’m kind of upset at myself. But you can’t win them all.”

Wisconsin claimed all three doubles matches to earn the doubles point heading into singles. All except one of the six singles matches were decided in two sets — junior Scott Rasmussen took the first set, 6-3, against Filipe Bellido before being shut out, 6-0, in the second set and losing the super tiebreaker 1-0.

“They are No. 2 in the Big Ten and they are an outstanding team,” Monich said. “They were strong all through singles and doubles. The doubles team that (junior) John Allare and I played today was one of the best we’ve played all year.”

MSU head coach Gene Orlando said the team’s playing two days a row, with the temperature in the 70s all weekend, had something to do with the severity of the defeat.

“Obviously we played a better team in Wisconsin,” Orlando said. “They didn’t have any matches yesterday and were a little fresher.

“You never know how the dynamics are going to work, but they were confident coming in and they were stronger and able to execute better.”

While Monich and Rinks aren’t especially happy with their last regular-season match, as they both lost in their matches in two not-so-close sets, they are happy with their MSU careers.

“I gave the team the same advice that my seniors gave me when I first came here,” Monich said. “My seniors told me ‘live here every day at MSU to your fullest because it will be over in the blink of an eye.’ It’s a great piece of advice for the team for the future.”

Monich and Rinks both collected two-set victories Saturday in their matches against Northwestern.

“Our singles play and our leadership in Monich and Rinks was really the key to our victory (against Northwestern),” Orlando said.

Wisconsin sits in second in the Big Ten while MSU and Northwestern are holding down the last two spots in the conference.

The Spartans will now take their season into the Big Ten Tournament starting Thursday.

“We’ve got to put this one behind us now and just concentrate on the Big Ten Championships,” Orlando said. “We need to keep staying positive and have nothing to lose and try to get another win.”