North Texas head coach Todd Dodge had a talk with his team following its loss to Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday and was pleased with the results he saw when the Mean Green returned to practice Tuesday.

The workout convinced Dodge that his players were still emotionally invested in what at times has been a tough season.

UNT appeared as if it had started to turn the corner in a 68-49 win over Western Kentucky two weeks ago that snapped a six-game losing streak, but couldn’t build on the victory against the Warhawks. UNT failed to score a touchdown against ULM and fell 33-6, its most lopsided loss in Sun Belt Conference play this season.

UNT will look to get back on track on Saturday when the Mean Green takes on Florida International in Miami.

“I don’t worry about our players checking out,” Dodge said. “I talked to the players in the locker room afterwards about it not being something that we have to worry about. We are all going to be men and grind together. There are teams in America that are 8-0 or 9-0, which makes it easy to be a good teammate. You find out about people right now, and I like the way we are conducting ourselves. I don’t sense that we are checking out. There is a sense on this team that the attitude of checking out won’t be tolerated. Frankly, last year there was some checkout, which you hate to admit.”

UNT (2-7) still has three games left and has already matched its top win total for a season in Dodge’s three years with the Mean Green. UNT finished 2-10 in 2007 before finishing 1-11 last year.

The Mean Green finished the 2008 season on a three-game losing streak.

“Last year I worried about players checking out,” UNT quarterback Riley Dodge said. “This year I don’t. Toward the end of last year we were stale and you could tell people didn’t want to be out there. We had a great practice today and have a chance to be 5-7, which would be something great to build on for next season.”

UNT would have to finish the year on a three-game winning streak to reach that goal. The Mean Green hasn’t won back-to-back games since 2004.

UNT will look to start a season-ending run this weekend against an FIU team it has lost to in each of the last two years.

None of the teams UNT will face in the final three weeks of the season has a winning record. FIU (2-7), Army (3-6) and Arkansas State (2-6) have struggled just as much as the Mean Green.

“The coaches are still very enthusiastic,” UNT cornerback Royce Hill said. “We had a great talk and no one is bailing out and wanting to cut the season short. We are trying to win games and this is one of our best opportunities this year.”

Men’s basketball

Trilli returns to UNT for Newman exhibition

Vic Trilli isn’t sure what to expect today when he returns to a school and city he knows well.

The former North Texas men’s basketball coach spent four seasons coaching the Mean Green from 1997-2001, endured a few tough seasons and made several friends along the way.

Trilli, who finished with a 20-87 record at UNT, will make his first appearance at the Super Pit since he left the school when Newman plays the Mean Green in a doubleheader that will begin at 5 p.m. Trilli is Newman’s athletic director.

“Time always heals wounds,” Trilli said. “Most of the people there know what we were up against. Everyone makes mistakes and I made a few, but I have a lot of friends in Denton. North Texas was a good place for me. Going back will be a little tough, though. I hope the reception will be warm and friendly.”

Trilli knew current head coach Johnny Jones from their time as assistant coaches at Texas and LSU, respectively. When Trilli took over at Newman, Jones was more than happy to lend his friend a hand by offering him a chance to play a guarantee game at the Super Pit.

“We visited a little bit, and two things could happen if we played Newman,” Jones said. “We could help Vic build the Newman program to where he thinks it can be by helping him financially, and we could also bring him back to Den-ton.”

Newman is in its second season competing on the Division II level after moving up from NAIA.

The Jets lost their first exhibition game to Wichita State 81-69 on Saturday. Trilli’s son Ryan is a sophomore guard at Newman.

“The Super Pit is the type of venue we don’t get a chance to play in very often,” Trilli said. “We got a chance to play Wichita State in front of 10,000. We are following that up with a trip to Denton. Both will help us grow our program.”

The game could also help UNT, which will be playing its first and only exhibition game.

“This will be a great challenge for us,” Jones said. “They are a good basketball team. We will get a chance to get our new guys acclimated and get our older guys ready for a new season.”

Women’s basketball

UNT to face Newman

The UNT women will open the doubleheader and look to rebound from a loss to TWU in its first exhibition game of the season, 79-75.

“We have tightened up a lot of our deficiencies and shortcomings that resulted in us losing the game,” UNT head coach Shanice Stephens said. “It was definitely a wakeup call. Regardless of what name is on the jersey you have to come ready to play.”

Senior guard Brittney James led UNT with 21 points against the Pioneers.

“We still need to look at some combinations and inspire some folks,” Stephens said. “We want to look at some matchups.”

Freshman leaves team

Lakevia Taylor, a freshman guard from Hempstead, has left the UNT program but will remain at the school as a student, head coach Shanice Stephens said.

Taylor averaged 20.2 points a game as a high school senior when she posted 140 steals and 100 assists, a performance that earned her a spot in the TABC All-Star game.

Volleyball

UNT gains ground during homestand

UNT came into the weekend knowing that it needed a successful homestand to improve its chances of advancing to the Sun Belt Conference tournament.

That pressure didn’t seem to bother the Mean Green, which took care of business by winning two out of three matches. UNT swept Louisiana-Monroe and Louisiana-Lafayette.

UNT’s only loss of the weekend came in a 3-1 setback against New Orleans.

The Mean Green is now pretty much assured of landing a spot in the eight-team event and can move as high as the No. 5 seed heading into its final two matches of the season next week at Arkansas State and Arkansas-Little Rock.

“This team has been really good about knowing what it needs to do,” UNT head coach Cassie Headrick said. “They have gone out and done it and kept their eyes on their goals. We are focused on getting a higher seed. That was the first question the girls had in the locker room after our last match. They wanted to know what we can get as far as a seed, and that’s a good sign.”

UNT (12-18, 8-8) is in a tie with UALR for fourth place in the Sun Belt’s West Division. ASU is in second place at 10-6 in league play.

The Mean Green beat UALR and lost to ASU in a five-set match earlier in the season.

“With both of those teams, it helps to have played well against them earlier in the season,” Headrick said. “These girls know that we are going to have to be at the top of our game and be focused.”

Huddleston moves into eighth place on kills list

Junior outside hitter Amy Huddleston moved into eighth place on the UNT career kills list with 858 during the Mean Green’s three-game weekend homestand. Huddleston had 40 kills last week.

“Amy had another good weekend,” Headrick said. “She is ready to play every single day. Her team knows that and her opponents know that. Last night [Louisiana-Lafayette] was really trying to keep the ball away from her.”

Soccer

Scarfone named to all-tourney team

Freshman midfielder Ellen Scarfone was named to the All-Sun Belt Conference tournament team this week after she helped lead UNT to the semifinals.

UNT defeated Middle Ten-nessee 2-1 in the opening round before falling in the semifinals to Arkansas-Little Rock, 1-0.

“She deserved it,” UNT head coach John Hedlund said. “She played well throughout the tournament.”

Falling short of making the finals was a tough way for UNT to end the tournament that seemed to open up perfectly after top seed Florida Inter-national fell in the first round. UALR was the No. 8 seed, while UNT was seeded fourth. UALR advanced to the finals, where it fell to Denver.

“We just couldn’t score,” Hedlund said. “It was disappointing because I thought we had the team to beat Denver this year. I was looking forward to that matchup and it never happened.”

UNT struggled to score all season and finished with 27 goals in 20 games.

“This was probably one of my worst offensive teams,” Hedlund said. “We had the shots. We took 350 shots, but only scored 27. That was disappointing, because if our offense could have matched our defense we would still be playing.”

UNT will return its entire defense with the exception of defender Kelli Lunsford.

“My job in the off-season will be to get us back to where we need to be offensively next season,” Hedlund said. “Because we have pretty much everyone back on defense.”

Swimming

Dykstra happy with weekend performance

UNT head coach Joe Dykstra came away pleased with his team’s performance in a pair of meets over the weekend.

The Mean Green fell to SMU 143-96 on Friday before some of the athletes that are further down on its depth chart knocked off Austin College 216-58 and Southwestern 218-50 on Saturday.

UNT split its team in half for the meets.

“That was the most competitive we have ever been with SMU,” Dykstra said. “They are in the top 15 and win Confer-ence USA every year. We were right there. We stepped up and raced with them. We competed well, which is a great sign.”

Dykstra was especially happy with the performance of his relay teams that posted their best times in a dual meet during his tenure at the school.

UNT will focus on training for the next few weeks before returning to action at the Texas Invitational on Dec. 3-5 in Austin.

“This is going to be the fiercest competition this program has ever faced,” Dykstra said. “Texas, Arizona and Wisconsin will be there. At the top end, this will be the best meet in the country outside of the NCAAs. I never thought we had a team that had the confidence to step up to that level until this season.”

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