University of North Texas Athletics
ICYMI: In Case You Missed It 1/11 - 1/17
1/17/2021 12:00:00 PM | General
North Texas volleyball outside hitter Rhett Robinson was one-of-12 student-athletes to be named to the 2020-21 Conference USA All-Preseason Team on Thursday, as voted on by the league's 14 head coaches.
The preseason accolade comes after a stellar sophomore season in 2019. Despite battling an injury, Robinson finished second on the team with 264 kills and earned a spot on the Conference USA First Team. In league play, Robinson tallied 186 kills, which was good for sixth in all of Conference USA. The junior from Krum, Texas, also showed up on the defensive end of the floor with 69 blocks.
North Texas track and field collected six individual titles from throwers Jaleisa Shaffer, Chris Samaniego and Haley Walker, along with distance runners Audrey Springer, Luke Canon and Caleb Bouchard at the H-Town Speed City Series Saturday inside Yeoman Fieldhouse.
"We competed well this weekend and with a little more swagger," director of track and field Carl Sheffield said. "We have been having very consistent and progressive training since our return from the holidays. I think it's beginning to show. Our team got fired up to compete against a perennial top-conference team in UTSA and also competitive regional American Conference schools Houston and Tulane."
After having the fall season postponed to the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mean Green soccer team — winners of six straight Conference USA championships — finally returned to practice Tuesday afternoon roughly a month before their first game. A schedule will be announced in the coming days.
Leigh Faires McGee, Jenny Holwell and Diana Kolb all won a pair of individual events as the North Texas swimming and diving team beat Incarnate Word 167-132 on Friday morning in San Antonio. The win closes out the regular season as the Mean Green will now shift their focus to the 2021 Conference USA Championships.
"It was a great team effort today," head coach Brittany Roth said. "We had more of our team members able to compete today than in the past couple of meets, so it was nice to get a team win on the board."
The North Texas tennis team concluded its final preseason tournament on Monday at the TCU Invite. And UNT is feeling great as they head into the spring dual match season next week.
The Mean Green finished the multi-day 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.
