DENTON — The North Texas tennis team is looking to rebound after last week at FIU suffering just its second loss over its last eight.

The Mean Green (8-5) host Old Dominion (11-2) on Friday at 3 p.m. and LA Tech (3-8) on Sunday at 11 a.m. at UNT's the Waranch Tennis Complex. The Mean Green enter this weekend's set of matches with a 3-1 record against Conference USA opponents this season and a 7-1 record in home matches. 

"What we are searching for and striving for is to have everyone in the optimum performance state on game days," said head coach Sujay Lama. "When that occurs we know what we are capable of doing."

What the Mean Green have shown that they are capable of is putting together complete team wins.

In its 13 matches this season North Texas has had five shutout wins. They only had one shutout win all of last season and it didn't come until the end of February. Success from all six players in the lineup and not just the top has been huge for the Mean Green as they head into the second-half of the season.

Junior Ivana Babic, who opened the season on a five-match winning streak has put together a 7-1 singles record on the year after compiling just two total dual match wins in her first two seasons in Denton.

Babic and her doubles partner Alexandra Heczey have also stepped up this season to help the Mean Green win the doubles point in seven of their last eight matches. Babic and Heczey's six doubles wins are tied for the team lead with Maria Kononova and Tamuna Kutubidze who will likely graduate as the most successful doubles team in program history. 

Last season, six doubles win would have been tied for the second-most for the entire year and just one off the most. Heczey and Babic were 1-2 last season in matches. 

In addition to Babic and Heczey's success, sophomore Nidhi Surapaneni has already surpassed her season total for singles wins from a year ago with six. Seniors Kutubidze and Kononova are one win shy of tying their 2018 season total, which were first-team all-conference seasons for them. 

"I like the focus and hunger this team has had at practice this week," Lama said. "This is a special group pushing hard each day. Nothing excites us more than the opportunity to compete against a very good ODU team at home. It's going to be a battle and a great match."