UNT Tennis opens CUSA Tourney vs. UTEP Thursday in Denton

Zeleny' Orel · April 20, 2023

Seeded #6 the UNT Tennis team just missed receiving a bye to the quarterfinals of the CUSA Tourney and plays #11 UTEP at noon Thursday at the Waranch Tennis Complex in Denton. UNT goes into the tourney with a 10-11 season record and a 2-match losing streak (vs. UTA and UH). The winner of the UNT-UTEP match moves on to play #3 seed Rice at 10:00 Friday. UNT has never won a CUSA title, having last won a title in the Sun Belt in 2013. GMG...let's finish CUSA by winning the title!

untbowler · April 20, 2023

I do not understand the seeding by CUSA, recognize they use ITA Ranking, but when the #3 seed has beaten both #1 and #2 makes no sense. Same as UTSA being #8 even though they thumped UNT.

Zeleny' Orel · April 20, 2023

#6 UNT beats #11 UTEP 4-1 to move on to meet Rice at 10:00 Friday. After losing the doubles point 2-1, UNT won the first four singles matches to win 4-1. However, matches were more competitive than the score indicates. Match was moved up to 10:00 this morning, probably due to the weather forecast. Was windy which probably helped our players who are more accustomed to wind than UTEP, I would think.

Rice will be a huge challenge...GMG!

outoftown · April 21, 2023

On 4/20/2023 at 3:29 AM, untbowler said:

I do not understand the seeding by CUSA, recognize they use ITA Ranking, but when the #3 seed has beaten both #1 and #2 makes no sense. Same as UTSA being #8 even though they thumped UNT.

I don't fully get it either. but it appears that there simply is no regular season conference schedule, teams just "happen" to play each other sometimes, hence UNT having played 5 C-USA teams, while FAu has played only two, making it pretty much impossible to take direct games into account in any form.

Edited April 21, 2023 by outoftown

UNTLifer · April 21, 2023

We are currently getting spanked by Rice. Lost the doubles point as they swept us 6-2, 6-3 and 5-3 (when stopped). Rice currently leads every singles match by the scores of

#1: 6-1, 3-2

#2: 6-1, 5-1

#3: 7-6, 1-1

#4: 6-3. 5-0

#5: 7-6, 1-1

#6: 7-6,

Edited April 21, 2023 by UNTLifer

outoftown · April 21, 2023

And its over. Rice won 4-0 with the non-finished matches also looking like Rice was going to win them (match #3 being the potential exception).

The tennis program at UNT used to be a perennial conference championship contender until about 6 years ago. I feel Lama had multiple problems hit him at the same time, so he may still get this back on track. But I assume the AD will want to see some tangible progress at getting back to that prior level in a not too distant future. Since the pandemic it has not really appeared as things are getting back to where UNT competes for the championship

Edited April 21, 2023 by outoftown

UNTLifer · April 21, 2023

What a pitiful showing, but I did look up our roster and we are extremely young. I will defer to @untbowler regarding collegiate tennis, but we should be better than we are currently showing.

untbowler · April 21, 2023

@untlifer look at his tenure and how it ended at ILL, seems he topped out with Sun Belt and has not been able to match FIU, RICE, or Charlotte over the years. AAC is even tougher with SMU, Memphis, along with Charlotte and Rice coming over as well.

Also add in that there is a high turnover of players, including losing his #1 to KS for 23-34 season

El Paso Eagle · April 22, 2023

New Conference, New Expectations!

Draymond Green - If you're not getting better, you're...

Zeleny' Orel · April 23, 2023

After beating UNT, #3 seeded Rice went on to beat #2 seeded Charlotte 4-2 today to advance to the finals of the CUSA Tournament tomorrow. Rice will meet #1 seed FIU who beat #4 seed La Tech 4-0. Looks as if the cream of the crop this year in CUSA women's tennis is FIU, Rice, and Charlotte, who will all be moving to the AAC with UNT. As @untbowler mentioned add in SMU and Memphis and the AAC will be even tougher. As a comparison Rice is in its 10th finals in CUSA and UNT has not made it to a finals since its Sun Belt days.

Whatever has kept us from being competitive in CUSA will have to be corrected for us to have a chance of being competitive in the AAC.

GrandGreen · April 23, 2023

Not sure how much coaching has to do with winning tennis programs.

I am sure it is vital to have a good coach, however success seems to be more measured by who can buy the best international players.

Something needs to change, NT did not win a single match against conference foes: Charlotte, FIU, UTSA or Rice or future AAC team Tulane. Very bad UTEP, was NT's only conference win.

I would guess a coaching change will be coming.

untbowler · April 24, 2023

On 4/22/2023 at 7:09 PM, Zeleny' Orel said:

After beating UNT, #3 seeded Rice went on to beat #2 seeded Charlotte 4-2 today to advance to the finals of the CUSA Tournament tomorrow. Rice will meet #1 seed FIU who beat #4 seed La Tech 4-0. Looks as if the cream of the crop this year in CUSA women's tennis is FIU, Rice, and Charlotte, who will all be moving to the AAC with UNT. As @untbowler mentioned add in SMU and Memphis and the AAC will be even tougher. As a comparison Rice is in its 10th finals in CUSA and UNT has not made it to a finals since its Sun Belt days.

Whatever has kept us from being competitive in CUSA will have to be corrected for us to have a chance of being competitive in the AAC.

FIU is not moving to AAC thankfully, they are stuck in the expansionist CUSA, alongside LaTech. So for now 1 less team to beat-up on UNT next year

Zeleny' Orel · April 25, 2023

15 hours ago, untbowler said:

FIU is not moving to AAC thankfully, they are stuck in the expansionist CUSA, alongside LaTech. So for now 1 less team to beat-up on UNT next year

Thanks for the correction...got FIU confused with FAU