Tennis Rallies From Behind to Advance to American Conference Quarterfinal with 4-1 Win Over #11 Memphis

Thursday, April 16

Houston, TX

4 PM CT

University of North Texas

Memphis

Tennis Rallies From Behind to Advance to American Conference Quarterfinal with 4-1 Win Over #11 Memphis

4/16/2026 10:24:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score

Freshman Pia Petelinsek secures match-clinching point with comeback win at line five

HOUSTON – Freshman Pia Petelinsek rallied after dropping the opening set and secured the match-clinching point to give the UNT tennis team a 4-1 victory over #11 Memphis in the opening round of the American Conference Championship Thursday at the George R. Brown Tennis Complex.

The Mean Green rallied as a team as well after dropping the doubles point for the first time since March 7th to win four different singles matches and improve to 17-7 overall this season. The 17 wins are one shy of the most wins in the modern era (since 1988) in program history set in 2012 and 2013.

The win for UNT knocked the defending champion Tigers out of the tournament and will advance UNT to the Quarterfinals where they will take on host #3 Rice at 2:00 PM on Friday.

"It was an incredible win against the defending champs," head coach Amanda Stone said. "For the first time in a long time we were down going into singles and the fire, fight, and resilience we brought as a team was amazing. We rebounded in a big way jumping out ahead on 1, 2, and 6 and that set the tone for the comeback. Every single player on this team fought with everything they had. All year we've said to each other 'together' and today we lived that. Our whole team won this match."

In doubles play, the Mean Green fell at lines one and three to lose the doubles point for the first time since their contest against Tulane in early March. The loss snapped a streak of 10 consecutive doubles points for UNT, the longest such streak in program history.

North Texas rallied in a big way in singles, winning in straight sets at lines one, two and six along with Petelinsek's comeback win at line five to seal the win.

Giuliana Ciangherotti gave the UNT its first point playing at line six with a 6-3, 6-2 victory. It was Ciangherotti's 10th singles win this season and improved her record at line six this season to 4-2 in dual matches.

Moments later, Carolina Laydner pushed the Mean Green into the lead for good with a strong 6-2, 6-2 win at the top line for her team-best 15th singles win this season.

Laydner continues to climb the record books and is now 11-2 at line one in dual matches this season, the seventh-most single-season line one wins in program history. In addition, if the season ended today Laydner's overall single-season win percentage (.833) and line one win percentage (.846) would both be the best in program history.

Playing at line two, Lou Chalard pushed the UNT lead to 3-1 with a 6-0, 7-6 (7-5) victory. Chalard is now 12-5 overall this season and is 8-3 when playing at line two.

With three matches decided, the matches at lines three, four and five were all pushed to three sets. Petelinsek, Marina Adati and Lilly Schultz all bounced back after dropping the opening sets in their respective matches to force a decisive third set.

After dropping her opening frame 4-6, Petelinsek was able to recover and win the following two sets 6-3, 6-4 for her eighth singles win of the year. The freshman out of Slovenia has become accustomed to playing long matches all season with Thursday's thriller being her 10th singles match this season that pushed into the third set.

UNT will now set its sights on the Rice Owls in the quarterfinal matchup on Friday. The Mean Green fell to the Owls 6-0 in Houston earlier this season in late January.

Doubles Results