Tennis Beats Conference Foe

[Zeleny' Orel]

Sunday's tennis match with UTEP was moved indoors to the Las Colinas Country Club in Irving and started at 7:30 a.m. This was the first match with a Conference USA foe and UNT prevailed 4-1. UTEP kept several matches close, but UNT won 4 of the 5 completed singles matches and was in route to win the 6th if needed. Due to court space, the singles matches were played first and no doubles was played since the victory was already decided.

UNT looks to be improving steadily this spring. The ladies have played a very steady dose of higher ranked teams and it seems to have improved the games of the players. Hopefully they will peak by the Conference USA tournament in Virginia in mid-April. The team is very young (2 juniors, 2 sophomores, and 4 freshmen) so experience is being gained daily.

Some observations:

#1 player Kseniya Bardabush seems to have overcome her ankle injury and is playing at a high level; junior Franziska Spinkmeyer is still out with an Achilles problem, but says she will begin to play some again in a couple of weeks; if she comes back strong, that will strengthen the team going into the tournament

#2 player Anastasiya Shestokova (enrolled as a freshman in January) is the real deal...look for her to do great things in the future; she has won the first 4 matches she has played for UNT

Current lineup has freshmen playing in the #2, #3, #5 and #6 spots, with a junior playing at #1 and a sophomore at #4. Spinkmeyer, a junior, if back to form, could play anywhere from the #3 to #6 spot and is a valuable doubles player as well.

It will be an interesting spring season. Conference USA is a tough tennis conference and I see UNT in the upper half of the teams. Tournament seedings may well determine how far we go in the tournament.

No doubt that the next few years look bright. Coach Lama is a great coach and now has ex-TCU head coach and ex-SMU assistant head coach, Jeff Hammond, assisting him. The foundation looks solid.

GO MEAN GREEN!

[Greenrex]

Thanks for the update, ZO!

[untbowler]

the team is in my mind around #4-6 seed right now.

#1/2 Tulsa/Rice

#3 Louisiana Tech (solid #1-3, then taper off, but still good)

#4 UNT

#5 MUTS

#6 UTSA (little streaky, but good up top)

#7 Tulane (can not figure this team out, bad losses and close losses)

#8 UTEP although they did beat UTSA 4-3

#9-16 hard to figure out, the team are similar and much weaker than top 8

[Zeleny' Orel]

We play a home match with Louisiana Tech on March 22 and UTSA on April 5, both at 11:00 am. That should give us a better feel for where we stand. Unlike the Sun Belt, where we played every conference team prior to the tournament, Conference USA is so large and so spread out that we actually only play a few conference teams before the tournament, so if it difficult to get a read on all the opponents.

I would agree that Tulsa and Rice are clearly the best teams in the conference....after that, I am not sure since I haven't seen all the teams play.

On an unrelated note, I hope the team chemistry is not affected by the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine since we have players from both countries. Our #1 and #2 players, Kseniya Bardabush and Anastasiya Shestakova are both from the Ukraine, while Kamilla Galieva, currently playing at #3, is from Russia. Who would have thought that conflicts around the world could possibly impact UNT tennis. Since Shestakova just came in January and Galieva is a freshman, the bond may not be as strong as if they were upperclassmen as is Bardabush, a junior. Hopefully Coach Lama can guide everyone thorough this situation.

GO MEAN GREEN!

[untbowler]

We play a home match with Louisiana Tech on March 22 and UTSA on April 5, both at 11:00 am. That should give us a better feel for where we stand. Unlike the Sun Belt, where we played every conference team prior to the tournament, Conference USA is so large and so spread out that we actually only play a few conference teams before the tournament, so if it difficult to get a read on all the opponents.

I would agree that Tulsa and Rice are clearly the best teams in the conference....after that, I am not sure since I haven't seen all the teams play.

On an unrelated note, I hope the team chemistry is not affected by the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine since we have players from both countries. Our #1 and #2 players, Kseniya Bardabush and Anastasiya Shestakova are both from the Ukraine, while Kamilla Galieva, currently playing at #3, is from Russia. Who would have thought that conflicts around the world could possibly impact UNT tennis. Since Shestakova just came in January and Galieva is a freshman, the bond may not be as strong as if they were upperclassmen as is Bardabush, a junior. Hopefully Coach Lama can guide everyone thorough this situation.

GO MEAN GREEN!

Galieva is a Soph. She played last year at UALR and transferred when they dropped their program.

Also Tulsa just smacked Rice 4-1. Rice has best 1/2 punch in conference but Tulsa has the depth, especially with their Polish girl at #5, who was being recruited by a few SEC schools, but they did not wait for clearinghouse issues to finish

[Zeleny' Orel]

Was going by UNT tennis website that had Galieva listed as a freshman...did she actually play for UALR last year?

[untbowler]

Was going by UNT tennis website that had Galieva listed as a freshman...did she actually play for UALR last year?

Yes she started off at #5 and then moved to #3 behind a SR and a JR. Not sure why UNT has her as a Freshmen, since I coached against her last year and know local school tried recruiting her but she wanted to go West and South.

http://www.ualrtrojans.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=35755&SPID=2829&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=7400&ATCLID=206086162&Q_SEASON=2012

[Zeleny' Orel]

Thanks for the info. Where do you coach?

[untbowler]

Thanks for the info. Where do you coach?

I was a volunteer coach last year for UCA, but now officiating more this year, so no time to coach, but may try some more next year.

3 yrs as student asst years ago 2 at SHSU and 1 at UNT.