Tennessee women’s tennis couldn’t pick up a win in two tough road matchups over the weekend.
Falling 4-1 to Auburn on Thursday and 4-2 to Florida on Saturday, the No. 11 Lady Vols (8-4, 4-3 SEC) have now dropped three of their last four matches, each loss coming against Top 25 opponents.
Auburn
Tennessee came up short against No. 3 Auburn as the Tigers picked up the doubles point and singles wins on Courts 4, 5 and 6.
Auburn started doubles play with a quick victory on Court 2, as Angella Okutoyi and Merna Refaat took down Catherine Aulia and Leyla Britez Risso, 6-0. The Lady Vols tied up the doubles session after Maeve Thornton and Katrina Scott defeated Ekaterina Khairutdinova and Ashton Bowers 7-5 on Court 3. The doubles point came down to a tiebreaker on Court 1. Still, Auburn grabbed the victory as the No. 14 duo of DJ Bennett and Ava Esposito won 7(7) – 6(5) against Vanesa Suarez and Francesca Mattioli.
Auburn quickly grabbed singles victories on Courts 4 and 5 to go up 3-0 in the dual. Mattioli fell to Bowers 6-1, 6-1, while Refaat defeated Catherine Aulia 7-5, 6-2.
Scott would retaliate for Tennessee, claiming the win on Court 1 over Bennett by a score of 6-3, 7(7) – 6(1). The remaining three courts went to three sets.
The match was decided on Court 6, where Alice Battesti emerged victorious over Audrey Aulia, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. Britez Risso held a 4-2 advantage for the Lady Vols in her third set, while Suarez fell 4-3 in her deciding frame.
Florida
Things wouldn’t get better for the Lady Vols two days later as they fell to No. 23 Florida. Tennessee picked up the doubles point and the first singles victory, but the Gators would rattle off four straight wins in singles to seal the dual.
Catherine Aulia and Britez Risso started doubles with a win over Brooke Black and Valery Gynina, 7-5. After Scott and Thornton fell to Lucie Pawlak and India Houghton 7-5 on Court 3, Mattioli and Suarez clinched the doubles point for the Lady Vols. The pair won on a tiebreaker over No. 19 Xinyi Nong and Nikola Daubnerova 7(8)-6(6).
In singles, Britez Risso continued her dominant spring season on Court 3, cruising 6-0, 6-1 over Gabia Paskauskas to put Tennessee up 2-0. But from there, Florida would rattle off three straight singles victories on Courts 2, 4 and 6, as Suarez and both Catherine and Audrey Aulia all fell in straight sets.
The match was decided on Court 5, where Mattioli faced off against Pawlak. After winning the first set 6-4, Mattioli dropped the second 6-3. She fell behind in the third set, but came back to make it 5-5 and force a tiebreaker.
Mattioli stood up 9-8 in the tiebreaker with a chance to win her match when she called a ball out from Pawlak. The official overruled it, marking her third overruled call of the match. By the rules, a third overruled decision results in a game penalty. The official awarded Pawlak the tiebreak game, giving the Gators a 4-2 match win.
Scott held a 3-2 lead in her third set on Court 1 when the overruled call clinched the match.
The Lady Vols will look to get back on track at home, facing No. 5 Texas A&M on March 20 at 11 a.m. ET.
