UNT Tennis Needs Victory

[Zeleny' Orel]

UNT lost to unranked UTA 4-0 this windy afternoon in Denton. UTA is a good team, but UNT came out very flat for the match. Losing the doubles point and the first set in 4 of the 6 singles matches, UNT was is a deep hole and didn't have time to dig out. UNT fell to #67 nationally and this loss may drop them out of the rankings (only the top 75 are ranked nationally), They should have been more competitive, but weren't.

UNT must win its match against UTSA this Saturday to get a good seeding for the CUSA tournament...the first 4 seeds get a double bye. #19 Tulsa and #26 Rice should be seeded #1 and #2 in the tournament. UNT needs to beat UTSA to stay in contention for the #3 or #4 seed. They will need to play much better and go into the tournament on a winning streak to have a chance of doing well.

Our #3 player is still out, but is hopeful to be back at tourney time. She will, however, have been out of competition for 2-3 weeks and may be rusty. Although losing at the #5 spot against UTA, Franziska Sprinkmeyer seemed to be moving better than last week. She still has time to get back into playing shape after her long absence due to Achilles surgery. Had all the matches been completed, freshman Alexis Thoma may have won her match. She won the first set, was down 1-5 in the 2nd, but was leading 6-5 when the match was called. #2 Anastasiya Shestakova was in the third set of her match and #6 Ana Sofia Cordero has won the first set and was in the second set when the match was called. There were a few bright spots, but in the end UNT did not play with the intensity needed to win. Teams will always look to knock of ranked teams and UNT has not seemed to learn how to handle these situations yet--young team, but they need to learn this quickly to do well in the tournament.

Big match against UTSA this Saturday at 11:00 in Denton. GO MEAN GREEN!

[untbowler]

sorry but no way to gloss over this one, that is just a straight up bad loss to an average team, after getting trounced by Memphis. I know end of season and players worn out and injured but so are many of the other teams.

Need to beat UTSA and hope to remain in Top 4 seeds.

I'll probably see UTA in a few weeks at Sun Belt Championships and can get a better view of them at that time, but this loss stings.

Thought they would beat UTSA, but looking at comparable results UTSA dominated UTA at lines #1-2 so could be a fight on their hands.

Edited April 3, 2014 by untbowler

[Zeleny' Orel]

I agree this was a bad loss, but UTA played well and we were flat....that leads to a defeat!

Results of UTSA and UNT for common opponents:

Houston....both teams lost 0-5

New Mexico...UNT won 5-2 and UTSA lost 2-5

UTEP...UNT won 4-1 and UTSA lost 3-4

UTA....UNT lost 0-4 and UTSA lost 3-4

Liberty...UNT won 5-1 and UTSA won 4-3

Saturday's match is a must win since this is a conference match...for both tournament seeding and confidence!

Let's hope the girls bounce back. GO MEAN GREEN!