Sunday, January 17
Austin, TX
2 PM
University of North Texas
at
Texas
Mean Green Start Season At UT
1/16/2021 11:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
AUSTIN — After having last season cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the North Texas tennis team opens the 2021 season on Sunday with a massive match.
The Mean Green travel to Austin to face the No. 3 nationally ranked Texas Longhorns on Sunday at 2 p.m. CT.
The match can be streamed live here.
"It's exciting to be able to play a dual match finally," said head coach Sujay Lama who is in his 15th season with the Mean Green. "This is a huge challenge but an incredible opportunity to play against arguably the best team in the country."
The Mean Green come into Sunday's contest a week after they put the region on notice with a strong performance at the TCU Invite. Lama said he saw tremendous growth both in practice leading up to the Invite and in the tournament and it resulted in everyone playing at a very high level.
The Mean Green finished the multi-day TCU tournament with nine singles wins, including Sunday's perfect 5-0 day. Most of the victories coming against SEC and BIG 12 opponents. They also had two doubles victories both over Central Arkansas who reached the NCAA Tournament in 2019 — the most recent NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament.
"The key for us is to play within ourselves and to focus on our side of the court," Lama said. "It's executing the things we have been working on and not being in awe of our opponent."
Texas will be the highest ranked opponent North Texas has faced under Lama and the 18th top 25 opponent they've faced.
"The experience will undoubtedly make us better," Lama said. "We will continue to play with gratitude knowing how fortunate we are to be able to be doing what we love."
Though the Mean Green have lots of experience playing the Longhorns in fall tournaments, Sunday will actually be the first time they've faced UT in a dual match since Feb. 6, 1985. This will be the sixth all-time dual match meeting between the two schools.
Four UT players are featured in the preseason Top 125 of the Oracle ITA national singles rankings (Jan. 13): senior Anna Turati (No. 5), freshman Peyton Stearns (No. 66), freshman Lulu Sun (No. 94) and freshman Charlotte Chavatipon (No. 125). The senior duo of Anna Turati and Fernanda Labraña check in at No. 48 in the preseason doubles national rankings. In addition, Texas is the only school to place two student-athletes on the ITA preseason Top 10 Newcomers list. Stearns is the top-ranked newcomer in the nation, while Sun was ranked third.
NIDHI'S TIME
North Texas' lone senior this year, Nidhi Surapaneni, has quietly grown over he last three-plus years into one of the program's all-time greats. On Sunday, Surapaneni, who has played as an underclassmen and learned from the greats like Maria Kononova and Tamuna Kutubidze, now takes the reigns of the program as its leader.
WELCOME LUCIE
Newcomer Lucie Devier comes to North Texas with a ton of accolades. The Tyler Junior College transfer ranked No. 2 in the nation in the NJCAA in singles and No. 2 in the nation in the NJCAA in doubles. She was a 2019 Regional Champion, a 2019 NJCAA Singles National Champion runner-up, a 2019 NJCAA Doubles National Champion runner-up and had a victory over the No. 5 nationally ranked player. Since arriving to Denton in the fall she's played in tournaments against some of the nation's best and has held her own.
BACK IN AUSTIN
Though UNT hasn't played Texas in a dual match since 1985, the Mean Green's 2012 NCAA Tournament first round match against Nebraska was held at Texas.
The Mean Green travel to Austin to face the No. 3 nationally ranked Texas Longhorns on Sunday at 2 p.m. CT.
The match can be streamed live here.
"It's exciting to be able to play a dual match finally," said head coach Sujay Lama who is in his 15th season with the Mean Green. "This is a huge challenge but an incredible opportunity to play against arguably the best team in the country."
The Mean Green come into Sunday's contest a week after they put the region on notice with a strong performance at the TCU Invite. Lama said he saw tremendous growth both in practice leading up to the Invite and in the tournament and it resulted in everyone playing at a very high level.
The Mean Green finished the multi-day TCU tournament with nine singles wins, including Sunday's perfect 5-0 day. Most of the victories coming against SEC and BIG 12 opponents. They also had two doubles victories both over Central Arkansas who reached the NCAA Tournament in 2019 — the most recent NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament.
"The key for us is to play within ourselves and to focus on our side of the court," Lama said. "It's executing the things we have been working on and not being in awe of our opponent."
Texas will be the highest ranked opponent North Texas has faced under Lama and the 18th top 25 opponent they've faced.
"The experience will undoubtedly make us better," Lama said. "We will continue to play with gratitude knowing how fortunate we are to be able to be doing what we love."
Though the Mean Green have lots of experience playing the Longhorns in fall tournaments, Sunday will actually be the first time they've faced UT in a dual match since Feb. 6, 1985. This will be the sixth all-time dual match meeting between the two schools.
Four UT players are featured in the preseason Top 125 of the Oracle ITA national singles rankings (Jan. 13): senior Anna Turati (No. 5), freshman Peyton Stearns (No. 66), freshman Lulu Sun (No. 94) and freshman Charlotte Chavatipon (No. 125). The senior duo of Anna Turati and Fernanda Labraña check in at No. 48 in the preseason doubles national rankings. In addition, Texas is the only school to place two student-athletes on the ITA preseason Top 10 Newcomers list. Stearns is the top-ranked newcomer in the nation, while Sun was ranked third.
NIDHI'S TIME
North Texas' lone senior this year, Nidhi Surapaneni, has quietly grown over he last three-plus years into one of the program's all-time greats. On Sunday, Surapaneni, who has played as an underclassmen and learned from the greats like Maria Kononova and Tamuna Kutubidze, now takes the reigns of the program as its leader.
WELCOME LUCIE
Newcomer Lucie Devier comes to North Texas with a ton of accolades. The Tyler Junior College transfer ranked No. 2 in the nation in the NJCAA in singles and No. 2 in the nation in the NJCAA in doubles. She was a 2019 Regional Champion, a 2019 NJCAA Singles National Champion runner-up, a 2019 NJCAA Doubles National Champion runner-up and had a victory over the No. 5 nationally ranked player. Since arriving to Denton in the fall she's played in tournaments against some of the nation's best and has held her own.
BACK IN AUSTIN
Though UNT hasn't played Texas in a dual match since 1985, the Mean Green's 2012 NCAA Tournament first round match against Nebraska was held at Texas.
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
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