DENTON —The North Texas tennis team saw its three-match winning-streak come to an end with a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to Kansas State Friday afternoon.

With the overall match score tied at three apiece, the Mean Green had their undefeated junior Ivana Babic in position to bring home the win.  

Bebic took last season's NCAA Tournament team to the wire at the No. 6 spot and battled against her opponent to a third set after dropping the first set. The back-and-forth match finished with K-State winning the third set 6-4. It is Babic's first lost in singles this season.

"Close but not quite enough to get the victory," said head UNT coach Sujay Lama. "A lot of positives we will take from this match. We are not happy with the outcome but excited about where we are with the process."

Prior to the match-clinching singles win on Friday, North Texas (5-4) had already shown its ability to win in pressure situations against K-State (4-2).

At the start of the match, UNT pulled off the doubles point victory at the brink.

After the No. 19 nationally ranked doubles team of Maria Kononova and Tamuna Kutubidze started off with a 6-3 win to take a 1-0 lead in the best of three doubles competition. After the Wildcats won at the No. 2 spot, it came down to Nidhi Surapaneni and Minying Liang at No. 3 to carry UNT to an early lead.

They were successful as they won 7-5.

Early in the singles competition, K-State took an overall 2-1 lead with wins at No. 4 and No. 3. They then saw that lead go back to North Texas as No. 69 Kutubidze and Kononova each won their match. 

With the Mean Green up 3-2, it came down to Liang and Babic to win it for North Texas.

Liang led 5-2 in the second set but eventually lost in a second-set tiebreak. 

With the match tied, the Mean Green were still confident as it was in the hands of the reliable Babic who had already pull herself out of a first set loss deficit. However, a late comeback by K-State was the dealbreaker.

"Doubles looked great today and we are battling as one unit," Lama said. "Now we need to learn to finish matches. We have to continue improving."

North Texas has a quick turnaround as they host Arizona on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the Waranch Tennis Complex. 

SINGLES
1. #69 Tamuna Kutubidze (UNT) def. Margot Decker (KSU) 2-6, 6-1, 6-0
2. Maria Kononova (UNT) def. Ines Mesquita (KSU) 6-4, 7-5
3. Anna Turco (KSU) def. Nidhi Surapaneni (UNT) 6-3, 6-1
4. Karine Marion-Job (KSU) def. Alexandra Heczey (UNT) 6-3, 6-2
5. Maria Ponomareva (KSU) def. Minying Liang (UNT) 6-2, 7-6 (7-5)
6. Ioana Gheorghita (KSU) def. Ivana Babic (UNT) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4

DOUBLES
1. #19 Tamuna Kutubidze/Maria Kononova (UNT) def. Margot Decker/Anna Turco (KSU) 6-3
2. Karine Marion-Job/Ines Mesquita (KSU) def. Ivana Babic/Alexandra Heczey (UNT) 6-4
3. Nidhi Surapaneni/Minying Liang (UNT) def. Ioana Gheorghita/Maria Ponomareva (KSU) 7-5