DENTON – North Texas tennis seniors Maria Kononova and Tamuna Kutubidze have earned the program's first NCAA Doubles Championship berth.

The Mean Green doubles team, which is the only team from the Texas Region to make it and is the highest ranked team in Conference USA, earned an automatic berth into the 32-team tournament.

The doubles championship will be held in Orlando, Florida, at the USTA National Campus May 21-25 following the conclusion of the team championship May 16-19. The draws will be announced following the team championship.

"It's a great honor and opportunity to represent our school and compete one more time," Kononova said. "I'm excited for the opportunity to compete with the best players in the country."

This is another program first for the UNT doubles team that has become the most decorated in North Texas history.

In the fall, Kononova and Kutubidze won the program's first ITA Texas Regional championship, earning them a bid to the NCAA Doubles Fall Championships in Arizona in November. At the Fall Championships, the duo reached the Round of 16. It was the first time a UNT doubles team had made the fall tournament as well.

In the spring, the pair was ranked as high as No. 19 in the nation, another program record.

In four years, they've accumulated a 69-25 record in doubles matches, a program record for most wins and highest winning percentage for a doubles team with over 30 wins.

For the year, Kutubidze and Kononova are 20-5 with five wins against ranked opponents. On March 30, in a dual match against Tulsa, Kutubidze and Kononova narrowly lost to the No. 11 nationally ranked doubles team in a tiebreak.

At the fall championship, the Mean Green doubles team defeated an Oklahoma State team that featured Sofia Blanco, who paired with a different OSU teammate to earn an at-large bid to the upcoming NCAA Doubles Championship. In the Round of 16, Kutubidze and Kononova lost to a California doubles team who made a drastic comeback to win.

The Mean Green pulled out the championship bid just ahead of Rice's top doubles team, which is the second-ranked team in the Texas Region. But Kononova and Kutubidze beat the Owl duo in Texas Regional semifinals on their way to the championship, which probably was the key to the Mean Green bid.