21 Feb 2013
Staff Writer
Caitlyn Alvarado / Staff Writer
Hoping to keep up its five-game winning streak, the Mean Green tennis team will compete against the University of Arizona this Saturday at 11 a.m.
Head coach Sujay Lama wants to regain the poise the doubles team lost last weekend against Florida International University and University of South Alabama..
“We have to get our mojo back,” Lama said. “We lost our composure a little bit last weekend and that had to do with how we performed. That is our number one focus.”
The last time UA and UNT competed was in the 2011-2012 season, where UA took the win 6-1. Last season, UNT met UA with five wins and three losses, but sports a better record this year with five wins and a loss.
Senior Ilona Serchenko is ready to play on home turf after last weekend’s road trip.
“We always want to win,” Serchenko said. “We are excited to come back home for the match. We really want to have people come and cheer for us.”
After the rocky weekend for the doubles teams, UNT will be working on conditioning and getting back the doubles teams that started the season off right.
“The focus will also be on doubles but at the same time we will continue on intense practices and conditioning,” Lama said. “In singles, I think our fitness has been paying off because you can see once we get going we are a difficult team to stop.”
Freshmen Dane’ Joubert was a member of the only doubles team to win last weekend against FIU and USA.
“We are just going to be working hard every day so we get the best outcome at the end,” Joubert said. “It is our home match and we always love to compete at home. We play so much better at home; we play comfortably at home.”
The two teams share some common opponents so far this season. UA has beaten the University of Minnesota, 4-2, a team that UNT defeated 4-3. Texas A&M University is a team both UA and UNT have fallen short to, both losing 1-4.
“We want to work on our mental game and be mentally tougher,” Joubert said. “We are going to work hard and encourage each other.”
After playing Arizona this weekend, UNT will have four matches in a span of eight days.
“We have a lot of matches in a short span of time so we have to make sure our bodies are fresh and we are ready to go out there and play and compete in some really tough matches,” Lama said.
