NORMAN, Okla. - The North Texas women’s tennis team continued fall play on Friday from the Oklahoma Invitational at the Headington Family Tennis Center. Like last weekend’s year-opening tournament, the Mean Green didn’t disappoint in day one’s action.

In a tournament field that includes 10 teams, North Texas was able to put together a 5-1 record in doubles play and a 5-2 mark in singles action to begin the three-day event.

“Our effort and fight continue to be our strength,” head coach Sujay Lama said. “It’s great to see our team battling hard and enjoying the competition. We had a great day today.”

Freshmen Maria Kononova and Tamuna Kutubidze were one of two doubles duos that remained undefeated on the day. The Kononova-Kutubidze tandem knocked off redshirt sophomore Sara Castellano and freshman Millie Stretton of Kansas State, 6-4. They then defeated Oklahoma’s Emma Devine and Simran Sethi, 6-2, to advance to Sunday’s semifinal round.

Also competing in doubles action were North Texas upperclassmen Kamilla Galieva and Alexis Thoma. Teamed up for the first time this season, the duo was able to control each of its two matches. Thoma and Galieva took down SMU’s Yana Erkeeva and Vaszilisza Bulgakova by a score of 6-2 before defeating Kansas State’s Livia Cirnu and Ana Garcia Navas, 6-1.

In singles, Friday’s play was highlighted by freshman Tamuna Kutubidze, who participated in the main (Boomer) draw. Kutubidze took on Oklahoma redshirt junior Mimi Fotopoulos in a lengthy back-and-forth affair in which the Mean Green rookie used a second-set tiebreaker to even things up before coming back from two games down to win the match in the final frame.

Galieva also won her singles match of the day against redshirt junior Sofiko Kadzhaya of TCU, remaining undefeated in singles play so far in the early fall season.

North Texas and the rest of the invitational field will resume play on Saturday at 9 a.m. with two rounds of singles in each draw. The final two rounds of doubles and the final round of singles will be played on Sunday.

For full results of day one from the OU Invite, and to see how the rest of the weekend’s matchups shake out, click here.

Doubles Results

Crimson Draw
Round of 16:
• Kononova/Kutubidze def. Castellano/Stretton (Kansas St.), 6-4
• Shestakova/Valenzuela fall to Fotopoulos/Brigante (Oklahoma), 6-3

Quarterfinals:
• Kononova/Kutubidze def. Devine/Sethi (Oklahoma), 6-2

Consolation:
• Shestakova/Valenzuela def. Hinton/Khmelnitckaia (Kansas), 6-4

Red Draw
Round of 16:
• Thoma/Galieva def. Erkeeva/Bulgakova (SMU), 6-2

Quarterfinals:
• Thoma/Galieva def. Cirnu/Garcia Navas (Kansas St.), 6-1

Singles Results

Boomer Draw
Round of 16:
• Kutubidze def. Fotopoulos (Oklahoma); 2-6, 7-6, 6-4
• Kononova falls to Castellano (Kansas St.); 6-3, 1-6, 2-6

Sooner Draw
Round of 16:
• Shestakova def. Costamagna (Kansas St.); 6-3, 6-0
• Thoma def. Brigante (Oklahoma); 6-2, 6-3

Stoops Draw
Round of 16:
• Galieva def. Kadzhaya (TCU); 7-5, 2-6, 6-4
• Valenzuela def. Wright (SMU); 7-5, 7-6
• Arciniegas falls to Devine (Oklahoma); 6-1, 6-0

more headlines