The Illinois women’s tennis team’s regular season ended at the hands of No. 54 Minnesota on Sunday. Ironically, the only way the Fighting Illini’s postseason play will stay alive is if they defeat the Golden Gophers today.

Minnesota, the No. 7 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, dominated Illinois just four days ago by a 5-2 margin. The 10th-seeded Illini will need a lot of energy and focus to survive all weekend in the single-elimination tournament.

Drawing the top-spot honors is Northwestern, who enters the tournament with a perfect 10-0 conference record and an impressive 18-4 record on the entire year.

This weekend, the No. 7 nationally-ranked Wildcats will be competing for their ninth-consecutive Big Ten Championship.

The two through nine seeds in the tournament are Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, Ohio State, Purdue, Minnesota, Penn State and Michigan State with Wisconsin getting the lowest seeding at No. 11.

Illinois, 1-9 in Big Ten play and 5-16 on the year, will take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers today at 3 p.m. The winner of the match will face Indiana tomorrow in the quarterfinals at 2 p.m.

The annual conference tournament is set to get underway today and end Sunday. All of the tournament matches will be held at the University of Minnesota’s Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis.