Zeleny' Orel

Had a tough draw playing #10 the first round, but were in contention the whole match. Maria and Tamuna were a staple for 4 years and will be a big loss for the team. Wishing them well in the future and thanking them for all they have done for UNT tennis and moving the team to the next level!

Hopefully they will play 2 of 3 sets in this tournament rather than the usual one set played in college doubles. I think that would increase their chances of winning a match or two because it gives you more of an opportunity to recover from a slow start. I really dislike the fact that only one set is usually played.

UNT seniors Maria Kononova and Tamuna Kutubidze, the highest ranked doubles team in CUSA, learned today that they received a berth in the NCAA doubles championship, a 32-team event taking place May 21-25 at the United States Tennis Association’s campus in Orlando, Florida. Kononova and Kutubidze have a career record of 69-25 as a doubles team and have set the UNT record for career doubles wins. GO MEAN GREEN!

Have the shirt, but don't remember what it says: Mean Green, Eagles, or UNT?

You are correct. They were dominated by Old Dominion, who in turn lost to Rice in the finals. I hope we have strong recruits coming in because it will be difficult to replace Maria and Tamuna. Replacing Minying will be easier.

UNT Women's Tennis (seeded #5) came from behind to beat FIU (seeded#4) 4-3 to advance to the semifinals in Houston at the CUSA Tournament. FIU had beaten the Mean Green 4-0 in Florida (played rest of matches after the official 4-0 loss to show 4-3 score). Maria Kononova, the #1 UNT player, did not play in that match. She quickly won her match in straight sets today. All other matches went to the third set, with UNT pulling out the victory in the last match. Big victory over last year's CUSA champs! Play #1 seeded Old Dominion tomorrow...will be extremely tough to beat this nationally ranked team. Hope the confidence is there and that the team did not leave it all on the court in the tense match today. GO MEAN GREEN!

It will take some awesome recruiting to replace this duo!

The bracket posted on the CUSA site has us playing Southern Miss but the article has us playing the winner of UTSA and FAU. Which is correct?

Anyone know when the basketball schedules will be announced?

Interesting to hear the business side of athletics and the strategic planning now being utilized...time will tell how it works for UNT Athletics, but sounds promising

More often than not, the more scholarship money you offer to National Merit Semifinalists or Finalists, the more attend your university. As with most things, the more money you invest, the better your result. Support UNT with your financial gifts for both academics and athletics.

Looks like Rice is in a class by themselves. They won the CUSA tournament for the 5th consecutive year, beating FIU 4-1 in the finals, after beating us 4-0 in the semis on Saturday . For three of our four years in CUSA we have met Rice in the semifinals. It would be interesting to see how we would fare if we were ever in the opposite half of the draw from Rice and playing someone else in the semifinals. In 2015 we lost 4-3 to Old Dominion in the quarterfinals. Rice loses only 2 seniors, so they should be tough again next year. All 14 teams play in the tournament, with the top 2 seeds getting a bye. We have our work cut out for us, but hopefully our 2 new recruits and continued development of our freshmen and sophomores will help move us to the next level. GO MEAN GREEN!

Rice (seeded #1 in tournament and #37 in nation) and FIU (seeded #2 and #40 in nation) are just a level above the rest of Conference USA this year. We are among the best of the rest. We lose our lone senior Alexis Thoma and have no juniors on the team, so the core group is back for next two years. Continued improvement in the play of the current freshmen and sophomores, plus two fairly good recruits, will give us a shot next year. This is a team that needs to be "coached up" to break through the semifinals, which is where we seem to get beat each year. Rice has won the last 4 conference championships and FIU is always in the hunt, so we need to get up to that next level to realistically compete for the championship. With added experience, it can be done. GO MEAN GREEN!

I will let a current student or more recent alum answer your questions, but I am curious on how you became a Mean Green fan all the way in New York.

The CUSA Women's Tennis draw is set and UNT, the host school, garnered the #5 seed, following Rice (#1), FIU (#2), Marshall (#3), and Old Dominion (#4). We open the tournament against #12 seed Middle Tennessee at noon on Thursday. We are in the top half of the bracket with Rice. If we win Thursday, we play the winner of Old Dominion-UAB on Friday at 2:00 p.m. Winning that match will probably give us the right to play Rice in the semifinals on Saturday at noon (Rice plays the winner of #8 Southern Miss and #9 UTSA on Friday). Let's hope it doesn't rain and force us to play indoors at some facility in Dallas....hate to lose the home court advantage....we have no indoor courts. GO MEAN GREEN! Beat MT!

Nope....

Good win for the Mean Green. Maria Kononova lost a 3rd set tiebreaker a #1 for SMU's only win in a match that came down to who executed best on the big points in a very close match. Most impressive was that the bottom of the lineup played well, which should give them some confidence. SMU not a strong as in the past, but this was still a good win. Next up is UTA at Arlington on Saturday. UTA has been a difficult team for UNT the last few years. It would really help us to follow up with another win on Saturday, gaining even more momentum going into next week's Conference USA Tournament....in Denton....hope it doesn't rain since we have no indoor courts! GO MEAN GREEN!

Long overdue...it was a disgrace to be one of the few schools that did have one. Now we need those indoor courts so that the team can practice and play matches during bad weather. Having to play at indoor facilities in Dallas when weather doesn't allow outdoor play doesn't help the team or the reputation of the school. I wonder what will happen if it rains when we host the CUSA tournament in a couple of weeks?

I wasn't able to attend. Anyone know the attendance number?

It seems like we are always one player away from making a serious challenge at the CUSA title...can't get out of the semis. I think we are too young to do it this year. Very strong at #1 and #2, but weaker in spots #3-#6. Doubles tends to give us a chance if we pull an upset in the #3-#6 positions. Playing the conference tournament in Denton might give us an edge this year. I will be glad to finally see a scoreboard...it has been embarrassing not to have one! Also, indoor courts are needed to keep up with other teams. Rain causes us to have to give up home advantage by moving matches to Dallas club sites (or even SMU!). We need the indoor courts so we can practice when it rains. Need to up the recruiting a notch and better develop players we have to have a serious chance at the CUSA championship on a consistent basis. GO MEAN GREEN! It seems like we are always one player away from making a serious challenge at the CUSA title...can't get out of the semis. I think we are too young to do it this year. Very strong at #1 and #2, but weaker in spots #3-#6. Doubles tends to give us a chance if we pull an upset in the #3-#6 positions. Playing the conference tournament in Denton might give us an edge this year. I will be glad to finally see a scoreboard...it has been embarrassing not to have one! Also, indoor courts are needed to keep up with other teams. Rain causes us to have to give up home advantage by moving matches to Dallas club sites (or even SMU!). We need the indoor courts so we can practice when it rains. Need to up the recruiting a notch and better develop players we have to have a serious chance at the CUSA championship on a consistent basis. GO MEAN GREEN!

Some of you long time Mean Green fans might recognize Grant McCasland's coach (top right hand corner)...Robert "Snake" LeGrand who coached at UTA from 1976-1987, prior to coaching at Irving High School. He was fun to watch and yell at during the UNT-UTA games.

Irving High School

Printing on whiteboard was hard to read....was that MVC (Missouri Valley Conference) as a LT(long-term) goal?

Does anyone know the projected seating capacity for the new track facility? I heard today it would not be large enough to get back high school regional track meets. I assume they meant the 6A division, but that wasn't specified.

I've watched her play this spring and she is improving daily. With more experience against collegiate players, she should continue to do so. And, most of all, I love the smile she has when on the court---she looks like she is having fun playing tennis! It will be interesting to watch her career.