Tennessee women’s tennis lost a heartbreaker to Vanderbilt, 4-3.
The No. 11 Commodores (17-5, 7-3 SEC) defeated the No. 12 Lady Vols (10-6, 5-5 SEC) in a grueling match, claiming singles victories on courts 1, 2, 4 and 6.
“We keep running into the same little roadblock where it all boils down to us,” Lady Vols head coach Alison Ojeda said. “Our opponents, who we’re losing these tight matches to, they’re really good.”
Catherine Aulia and Leyla Britez Risso got the Lady Vols started in doubles, jumping out to a 3-0 lead against Erin Pearce and Sophia Webster and holding serve to win 6-3. The Tennessee pair showed their prowess at the net with Britez Risso winning some masterful volleys.
The Commodores would tie it up as Valeria Ray and Bridget Stammel defeated Vanesa Suarez and Francesca Mattioli 7-5 on Court 1. Suarez and Mattioli were up 5-2 but struggled to close out the match, dropping five straight games.
Maeve Thornton and Katrina Scott were on the brink, down 6-5 against Trinetra Vijayakumar and Mia Yamakita on Court 3, but battled to force a tiebreaker and won the race to seven, clinching the doubles point with a 7(7)-6(3) victory.
Mattioli put Tennessee up 2-0 in a battle of powerful swings against Vijayakumar, winning in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4. The remaining courts all went three sets.
“She did a really good job understanding tactically how to play against her opponent, and she didn’t let up,” Ojeda said.
Ray gave Vanderbilt its first point of the night against Suarez on Court 2. After losing the first set 6-3, Suarez looked more aggressive in the second, tying it up 6-2. In the third, she got off to a 3-1 lead, but couldn’t hold on, losing 6-3.
“Vanesa doesn’t know how good she is yet,” Ojeda said. “I think once she knows that, then she’ll trust herself 100% of the time, but otherwise, she gets to a place where she allows her opponents to creep back in because she starts to question things.”
Pearce tied up the dual against Catherine Aulia, winning 6-3, 1-6, 6-4. From there, it was a best of three between courts 1, 3, and 6.
No. 18 Britez Risso pulled off a reverse sweep over Yamakita on Court 3 to make it 3-2 in the dual. Dropping a hard-fought first set 7-5, Britez Risso rallied back in the second 6-4, and then was in full control to take the third 6-1. Yamakita had a powerful return shot, but Britez Risso was aggressive at the net at the right moments and tapped into her competitive fire to come back.
“Her opponent played outstanding tennis at the very beginning, but Leyla just kept hanging in there,” Ojeda said.
Stammel pulled off an impressive Court 1 victory over Scott, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, to make it 3-3. The match would come down to Webster and Audrey Aulia battling on Court 6.
Aulia put out a resilient effort in the first set to win 7-5, but struggled in the second, dropping it 6-1. The freshman nearly delivered the victory for the Lady Vols, but ultimately lost the third set 7-5 and Vanderbilt clinched the match.
“I could not be more proud of her in terms of the way she competed,” Ojeda said of Aulia. “I made sure to let her know at the end of the match that, who she was out there tonight, I want that person on our team every single day.”
Tennessee once again had opportunities against a highly ranked team, but came up short. The Lady Vols won five second sets, but only one third set.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re willing to understand that a really competitive match at a very high level is going to go back and forth,” Ojeda said. “We can’t expect an opponent to come shake our hands before the match is actually over.”
The Lady Vols fall to 5-5 in conference play. They will finish up the homestand on Sunday, facing Missouri at 11 a.m. ET.
