DENTON — The North Texas tennis team fell 4-3 to No. 24 Old Dominion at the Waranch Tennis Complex on Friday. 

The great season for the Mean Green's (8-6) Tamuna Kutubidze, Maria Kononova and Ivana Babic continued on Friday as they all picked up wins over the nationally ranked Monarchs (11-2). 

"We knew it'd be a close 4-3 match," said head coach Sujay Lama. "We also knew it'd come down to the doubles point and that set the tone. Old Dominion is one of the best team's in our league and our goal is to win the conference championships so it's good to know we're right there with them. But we just got to keep working." 

Though the Mean Green lost the doubles point, Kononova and Kutubidze — the No. 37 nationally ranked doubles team —  remained undefeated with a 6-4 win and improved to 7-0 on the year. In singles, Kutubidze — the No. 79 nationally ranked singles player — beat ODU's Holly Hutchinson, 7-6 (4), 1-6, 10-7. Hutchinson was a first-team all-conference honor last season. 

Junior Ivana Babic improved to 8-1 in singles with a 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 6. In her first two seasons at UNT, Babic played less than eight singles matches. She is tied for the team lead in wins with Kutubidze. 

North Texas' third point came at No. 2 when Kononova's opponent got injured and was forced to retire. Kononova was leading 7-6(7-3), 4-3 at the time of the match was called. 

North Texas returns to the court on Sunday versus LA Tech at 11 a.m. 

Doubles competition
1. #37 Maria Kononova/Tamuna Kutubidze (UNT) def. Brooke Pilkington/Holly Hutchinson (ODU) 6-4
2. Yulia Starodubtseva/Oleksanda Andrieieva (ODU) def. Ivana Babic/Alexandra Heczey (UNT) 6-3
3. Nataliia Vlasova/Natalya Malenko (ODU) def. Minying Liang/Nidhi Surapaneni (UNT) 6-2

Singles competition
1. #79 Tamuna Kutubidze (UNT) def. Holly Hutchinson (ODU) 7-6(4), 1-6, 1-0 (10-7)
2. Maria Kononova (UNT) def. Nataliia Vlasova (ODU) 7-6 (7-3), 4-3, retired
3. Oleksanda Andrieieva (ODU) def. Alexandra Heczey (UNT) 6-3, 6-2
4. Yulia Starodubtseva (ODU) def. Nidhi Surapaneni (UNT) 6-4, 6-1
5. Brooke Pilkington (ODU) def. Minying Liang (UNT) 6-2, 6-3
6. Ivana Babic (UNT) def. Alesya Yakubovich (ODU) 6-4, 6-4