PLANO — For the second straight match the Mean Green tennis team shutout its opponent. 

With a 4-0 win over Northwestern State on Friday, North Texas has now won five of its last six. Four of those five wins have been in shutout fashion and they have outscored its last six opponents by a combined score of 28-5.

"We were business like today," said head coach Sujay Lama. "We knew we had to stay focused on what we needed to do because our opponent was not going to hand it to us. This team is in a nice place now and playing with confidence and self-belief. We have special chemistry and you can sense something positive brewing with each match."

Due to rain, Friday's match was moved to a indoor facility in Plano. 

Though the match wasn't played at UNT's (7-4) Waranch Tennis Complex, its normal home facility, Friday marked its sixth straight home match. Home has been kind to North Texas this season. Friday's win was its seventh home win this season, which is one more than they had all of last season or the season prior. The Mean Green still have five more home matches this season. 

Friday's match was once again started with a North Texas doubles victory. During their six-match home stand, the Mean Green won the doubles point in every match.

Anchored by its nationally ranked doubles team of Maria Kononova and Tamuna Kutubidze who remained undefeated with a 6-1 win on Friday, UNT clinched the doubles point by picking up a win at the No. 3 spot in the doubles lineup.

Nidhi Surapaneni and Minying Liang won 6-4 to improve to 2-1 on the year. The duo's other win came over Kansas State last Friday, which also clinched the doubles point for the Mean Green. 

With the doubles win over Northwestern State (6-2), North Texas took early control of the match but knew the talented and gritty Lady Demons would not back down so the senior, Liang, made sure to not let off the gas. 

"I am very proud of each of my teammates today, because we didn't lose our focus from the big win last week," said Liang referencing their 4-0 win over Arizona. "We kept working hard and kept the momentum going. We stick together and play for each other, the togetherness determines the victory."

After shutting out her NSU opponent in the first set, Liang felt the second set slipping away from her. During a changeover, Lama came to her with some wisdom that the 13-year Mean Green head coach is known for.

"I was losing my focus on my second set when I had a big lead and I ended up trailing 4-5," Liang explained of the second set. "Coach Lama came to me and calmed me down by telling me to think about my favorite song instead of letting my thoughts confuse me. That helped a lot. I stopped thinking about the past points or how I am going to finish the points faster. I focused on present and I won three games in a row."

With Liang's 6-0, 7-5 win at the No. 5 spot in the lineup, North Texas led 2-0 and was in a prime position to take the win. All six of the Mean Green's singles competitors won their first sets and following the conclusion of Liang's match, Kononova, Surapaneni and Alexandra Heczey were on the verge of closing out the win for UNT. 

It was just a matter of who'd get it done quicker.

The sophomore Surapaneni was the first of the three to close out her match. She won 6-3, 6-3 to give her team a 3-0 lead. Then shortly later, the Mean Green's winningest player of all-time, Maria Kononova clinched the match with a 6-4, 6-1 win.

North Texas takes its hot streak on the road next week when they travel to Miami to face Marshall in a neutral site match and then face the defending conference champs FIU for their first true road conference match of the year.

North Texas has played against two Conference USA school thus far — UTEP and Western Kentucky — and shutout both opponents. 

Next week's matches in Miami will be the first of four straight conference matches for UNT.

"We have four huge conference matches in the next two weeks," Lama said. "We have to work extremely hard to give ourselves a chance to be successful."

Singles
1. #57 Tamuna Kutubidze (UNT) vs. Polina Mutel (NSU) 6-2, 4-6, 1-0, unfinished
2. Maria Kononova (UNT) def. Rhea Verma (NSU) 6-4, 6-1
3. Alexandra Heczey (UNT) vs. Patricja Polanska (NSU) 6-0, 5-4, unfinished
4. Nidhi Surapaneni (UNT) def. Ela Iwaniuk (NSU) 6-3, 6-3
5. #114 Minying Liang (UNT) def. Judit Castillo (NSU) 6-0, 7-5
6. Ivana Babic (UNT) vs. Emilija Dancetovic (NSU) 6-2, 3-3, unfinished

Doubles
1. #26 Tamuna Kutubidze/Maria Kononova (UNT) def. Rhea Verma/Patricja Polanska (NSU) 6-1
2. Alexandra Heczey/Ivana Babic (UNT) vs. Ela Iwaniuk/Polina Mutel (NSU) 4-5, unfinished
3. Minying Liang/Nidhi Surapaneni (UNT) def. Emilija Dancetovic/Judit Castillo (NSU) 6-4