North Texas head coach Todd Dodge remembers well how Troy’s defense dismantled the Mean Green last season.

He believes the experience will help the Mean Green avoid a repeat performance this weekend in UNT’s first game against the Trojans since a 45-7 thrashing last season at Troy.

The Trojans finished with nine sacks against UNT and battered quarterback Giovanni Vizza throughout the night.

“We learned a lot from last year and became a better offense because of it,” Dodge said. “We went into that game and they were blitzing 15 percent of the time. They put in some good packages for that game. Sometimes you need those things to happen to improve.”

UNT struggled to protect Vizza last season and allowed 39 sacks on the year. The Mean Green has fared much better since and has allowed just 13 this year heading into Saturday’s game at Fouts Field.

UNT has allowed just one sack in its last 105 passing attempts behind an offensive line that has been one of the bright spots for the Mean Green this season.

The group could have its hands full while trying to contain the Trojans, who rank seventh nationally with 3.17 sacks a game.

Troy has eight players with at least one sack on the season, including defensive end Cameron Sheffield, who has 5.5 on the season.

Mosley to play against Troy

Sophomore running back Micah Mosley will play in UNT’s game against Troy on Saturday.

Mosley aggravated a shoulder injury that has hampered him all season last week in a loss to Louisiana-Monroe. UNT has been running short of running backs this season and has already lost Lance Dunbar for the year with a knee injury.

Mosley has missed two games this season and has 102 rushing yards on the year.

Head coach Todd Dodge said Tuesday that junior Cam Montgomery would likely carry most of the load the rest of the season for the Mean Green.

Tennis

UNT heads into regionals on roll

UNT will head to the ITA Southwest Regionals on a roll this weekend after picking up five titles at the Holiday Inn Astrodome Rice Classic over the weekend.

Madura Ranganthan beat Monika Hadvigerova of UT-Arlington, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Catalina Cruz and Rachel Wilhelm also won individual titles, while Ranganthan teamed with Irina-Alexandra Paraschiv to win their draw in doubles.

Wilhelm and Amy Joubert won their doubles draw to round out UNT’s group of singles and doubles winners.

“This is what we really needed heading into regionals,” UNT head coach Sujay Lama said. “We want to move up in the regional rankings. We went into a meet with LSU, Houston and Lamar that were in front of us and dominated them. We have our sights set on Baylor, Texas, A&M and TCU. What we want to do in regionals is measure ourselves against the big schools.”

UNT is ranked 13th in the region and could improve on that ranking after posting what Lama called the program’s best weekend in his three-year tenure.

Ranganthan and Paraschiv are in the main draw of the singles tournament at regionals, while the doubles teams of Ranganthan-Paraschiv, Joubert-Rachel Wilhelm and Ashley Akin-Shannon Mc­Kenzie are also in the main draw in doubles.

Soccer

UNT faces critical stretch

UNT still has a shot at the Sun Belt Conference regular season title heading into a pair of key games this weekend at home against Western Kentucky and Middle Tenn­essee.

The Mean Green (12-2-1, 6-1-1) enters the weekend in fourth place in the league standings behind Denver (7-0-1), MTSU (7-1) and WKU (6-0-2).

UNT will close the regular season with a game against Denver before hosting the conference tournament.

“My biggest goal is to have the last game of the year against Denver mean something,” UNT head coach John Hedlund said. “The two teams we are playing this weekend are capable of winning the conference and the conference tournament.”

The Mean Green has not lost since a 3-2 setback against Louisiana-Monroe on Sept. 28, although it did post a 3-3 tie with South Alabama that has spoiled what has been an otherwise spotless 5-0-1 run.

“It’s four teams vying for that top spot,” Hedlund said. “We will see how it all plays out since we are all playing each other the next two weekends.”

Switches provide spark

UNT has made a couple of changes in its lineup that have helped spark the Mean Green’s run over the last few weeks of the season.

UNT switched to a 3-5-2 alignment and put three freshman defenders on the field.

“We are trying to spread teams out and not play up the middle, where people are being physical with us,” UNT head coach John Hedlund said.

The Mean Green has struggled throughout the season with teams that have used a physical approach.

UNT has also moved Hannah Crawford, Shannon Gorrie and Kara Brooks into its starting defense in front of goalkeeper Mandy Hall.

Hall has allowed just one goal in UNT’s last three games.

“We are playing three freshmen on defense, which has worked since we played South Alabama,” Hedlund said. “They will be tested this weekend, but I have a lot of confidence in them.”

Swimming

UNT back after off week

UNT will return to action after an off week Friday when the Mean Green takes on Sun Belt Conference rival New Orleans.

The meet will take place at Tulane due to damage to UNO’s pool at Lakefront Arena that is still not open after Hurricane Katrina.

UNT last competed on meets on Oct. 10 and 11 in meets against Houston, Texas A&M and Rice.

“I haven’t had a team train like this one has trained since I have been here,” UNT head coach Joe Dykstra said. “I am excited about that.”

The meet will be UNT’s first against a Sun Belt rival this season.

Volleyball

UNT snaps losing streak with impressive victory

UNT snapped a six-match losing streak with a 25-21, 25-21, 25-17 win over Western Kentucky over the weekend that helped keep its hopes of advancing to the Sun Belt Conference tournament alive.

UNT (4-17, 2-6) is in sixth place in the seven-team SBC West Division and is two games in front of Louisiana-Monroe (1-21, 0-8), the only team in the league with fewer conference wins.

Roxana Casvean was named the Sun Belt Player of the Week for her performance against WKU. The sophomore outside hitter finished with 16 kills and finished with a .419 hitting percentage in UNT’s first-ever win over the Hilltoppers.

UNT will look to build on its performance against WKU in home matches against South Alabama on Friday and Troy on Sunday.

“These are big matches for about two weeks because we gave up some early matches,” UNT head coach Cassie Headrick said. “We have to have these wins. We know what we need to do.”

Headrick estimated that the Mean Green will need seven conference wins to advance to the league tournament, a task that could be tough for UNT. The Mean Green has just four home dates left in its final 10 matches of the season.

Player of the week

North Texas goalkeeper Mandy Hall didn’t have a lot to do over the weekend in the Mean Green’s wins over Arkansas-Little Rock and Arkansas State.

Hall was solid when called on, though, while posting a pair of shutouts. UNT knocked off UALR, 1-0, and came back to beat ASU, 2-0.

Hall had three saves against UALR and then picked up another shutout without making a save in the Mean Green’s win over ASU.

Hall and UNT’s defense helped the Mean Green improve to 12-2-1 on the season. For her performance, Hall is the Denton Record-Chronicle UNT Player of the Week.

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com .