BOX SCORE
IOWA CITY, Iowa — The Mean Green tennis team lost its first match of the year as they fell 5-2 against Xavier on a neutral court. 

Senior Tamuna Kutubidze and sophomore Nidhi Surapaneni had North Texas' lone wins on Saturday as they each won their singles match at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots in the lineup, respectively. 

"Hats off to Xavier," said head coach Sujay Lama. "They came prepared to battle and we were not. They had more energy and were aggressive."

North Texas (1-1) was coming off a 7-0 win over Abilene Christian in the season opener on Tuesday, in which they breezed by in the doubles competition.

On Saturday, Maria Kononova and Minying Liang's 6-1 win at the No. 1 position might have been the only victory in doubles for UNT but they almost came away with the doubles point.

Kononova and Liang's win tied the doubles competition. At the third court, Nidhi Surapaneni and Kutubidze took their opponent to a tiebreak but fell 10-4, which gave the doubles point to Xavier.

In singles, all six matches ended in straight sets. 

Kutubidze won her match 6-4, 7-5. Surapaneni won her's 6-3, 6-4. 

Liang at No. 4 and Haruka Sasaki No. 6, both took their opponents to a second set tiebreak but couldn't lost in the end.

"This loss is tough to swallow," Lama said. But a good lesson for our team very early in the season. We need to quickly regroup and be ready compete from the get go Sunday against a good team."

The Mean Green take on Iowa at 10 a.m. CT on Sunday. Fans can follow the match on MeanGreenStats.com

Singles
1. Ahmeir Kyle (XAVIER) def. Maria Kononova (UNT) 5-4, 7-5
2. #45 Tamuna Kutubidze (UNT) def. Sopia Abelson (XAVIER) 6-4, 7-5
3. Nidhi Surapaneni (UNT) def. Rachael Reichenbach (XAVIER) 6-3, 6-4
4. Emily Thomas (XAVIER) def. #102 Minying Liang (UNT) 6-4, 7-6 (10-7)
5. Anna Letto (XAVIER) def. Alexandra Heczey (UNT) 7-5, 6-3
6. Hunter Roper (XAVIER) def. Haruka Sasaki (UNT) 6-4, 7-6

Doubles

1. Minying Liang/Maria Kononova (UNT) def. Sopia Abelson/Anna Letto (XAVIER) 6-1
2. Emily Thomas/Ahmeir Kyle (XAVIER) def. Alexandra Heczey/Ivana Babic (UNT) 6-4
3. Hunter Roper/Rachael Reichenbach (XAVIER) def. Nidhi Surapaneni/Tamuna Kutubidze (UNT) 7-6 (10-4)