As far as road trips go, there’s not much more the Lady Vols could ask for.
Tennessee women’s tennis defeated Alabama 4-0 on Saturday, its fifth straight win and second of a short road stint. The No. 14 Lady Vols (7-1, 3-0 SEC) handed the No. 28 Crimson Tide (10-1, 2-1 SEC) their first loss of the season, taking the doubles point and wins on Courts 2, 3, and 6.
Tennessee rolled out two new doubles pairings for the first time since the start of the season. Freshman Katrina Scott teamed up with Maeve Thornton on Court 2, who was previously paired with Saray Yli-Piipari. Over on Court 3, senior Catherine Aulia teamed up with her sister, freshman Audrey Aulia, who made her doubles debut for the Lady Vols.
The Aulia connection was effective in its first showing, as the siblings were first off the court in doubles, taking down Alabama’s Mary Sidelnyk and Addison Bowman 6-1.
Vanesa Suarez and Francesca Mattioli stayed paired up for Tennessee as they have all season, but slid up to Court 1, facing Kristina Paskauskas and Karla Bartel of the Crimson Tide. Suarez and Mattioli provided the doubles victory for the Lady Vols, defeating Paskauskas and Bartel 6-4.
Scott and Thornton fell behind in their first match together but battled back to keep Alabama off the board. They were down 5-4 when Suarez and Mattioli clinched the doubles point.
Audrey Aulia was first off the court in singles for Tennessee, taking down Amina Salibayeva 6-2, 6-4 on Court 6. The victory marked the first singles win in Aulia’s young collegiate career and put the Lady Vols up 2-0 in the dual.
Suarez gave the Lady Vols their second singles win of the day on Court 2. She won the first set on a tiebreaker, and the second set wasn’t any easier, but Suarez prevailed over Alabama’s Klara Milicevic 7(7)-6(3), 6-4, putting Tennessee up 3-0 in position to win the dual.
Ultimately, it was Leyla Britez Risso who clinched the match for the Lady Vols. She seemed an unlikely candidate to do so after she was the only Lady Vol to drop her first set of singles, but she bounced back to win the next two sets, taking down Maria Andrienko 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Britez Risso remains unbeaten in singles this spring.
The remaining three Lady Vols were all in their deciding set. Catherine Aulia’s first two sets both went to a tiebreaker as she won the first and lost the second against Karla Bartel. She was leading 3-0 in her third set when Britez Risso clinched. Francesca Mattioli was also in a three-set match with Addison Bowman. Mattioli won the first set 6-3, lost the second 5-7, and was tied 1-1 in the deciding set. On Court 1, Katrina Scott was up 4-1 in her third set after winning the first set 7-5 and dropping the second set 2-6 to Kristina Paskauskas.
The Lady Vols will return home to Knoxville still unbeaten in the conference slate. They will face No. 11 Oklahoma on Friday, March 6 at 5 p.m. ET.
