UNT Tennis Back in Win Column Beating UTSA 5-2

[Zeleny' Orel]

UNT Tennis got back into the win column with a much-needed 5-2 victory over conference foe UTSA. After a Wednesday loss to UTA, UNT need to regroup and they did. Kseniya Bardabush played very strongly, as did fellow junior Franziska Sprinkmeyer. These juniors are the team leaders of a very young UNT team and needed to set the tone for the day, which they did by winning their doubles point as well as their singles matches. Due to a continued absence of Kamila Galieva with a foot injury, Alexis Thoma teamed with fellow freshman Anastasiya Shestakova for the first time and they played well together. UNT won the important doubles point and went into their singles matches with the 1-0 lead.

Kseniya (#1) has played extremely well the last two matches and seems to be peaking at tournament time. Franziska (#5) played a strong match for her first win since her Achilles Tendon surgery. She seems to be gaining back her confidence after her long layoff. Two of the freshman, Alexis Thoma (#4) and Ana Sophia (#6) were able to take their matches in straight sets. We have had some problems winning at the #2 slot (Anastasiya Shestakova) and the #3 slot (Augustina Valenzuela) recently. We need these two players to step it up a notch to have a chance of being successful in the Conference USA Tournament.

It should be an interesting conference tournament...Tulsa is very strong, as is Rice. We lost to Tulsa, but have beaten UTSA, UTEP, and Louisiana Tech. The unknown factor is the Eastern Division teams which we have not played. Our national ranking is based as much on our strength of schedule as our wins, but there are always good teams without a national ranking who have not played as tough a schedule. I do know that all our girls will need to be at the top of their games for us to do well.

Will be interested in seeing the tournament draw.....hope we are in the opposite bracket from Tulsa and are seeding at least #4. One more pre-tournament match next Saturday at 11:00 in Denton again Southern Alabama. I hope the weather is better than it was today.

GO MEAN GREEN!