Tennessee women’s tennis fell to Georgia 4-0.
The No. 15 Lady Vols (11-8, 6-7 SEC) couldn’t hold on to early singles leads against the No. 1 Bulldogs (15-4, 10-3 SEC), who grabbed the doubles point and wins on courts 2, 5 and 6 as Tennessee went winless on its weekend road trip.
“We’ve got to get to a place where, in the moment, we’re able to recognize the situation for what it is instead of making it bigger,” head coach Alison Ojeda said. “We’re creating a little too much stress.”
Georgia won a closely contested doubles point. On Court 2, Deniz Dilek and Aysegul Mert, the No. 7 doubles pairing, took down Tennessee’s Catherine Aulia and Leyla Britez Risso, 6-4, taking the final three games. Then, Hayden Mulberry and Emma Dong sealed the deal, defeating Katrina Scott and Maeve Thornton 6-4.
On Court 1, Vanesa Suarez and Francesca Mattioli held a 5-3 lead before doubles play was suspended.
“It just comes down to execution on a few points here or there,” Ojeda said. “We know how they play, they know how we play, so we’ve got to be willing to step up and finish a little bit without feeling like we’ve got to do more.”
Suarez was first off the court in singles, struggling in a 6-1, 6-1 loss to No. 7 Mert on Court 2. Georgia went up 2-0 in the dual.
Then, the Bulldogs brought it to the brink on Court 6. Patricija Paukstyte defeated Thornton 7-5, 6-1. Thornton got off to a 5-2 start in her third singles outing of the season, but struggled from there, dropping 11 of the next 12 games.
“(Thornton) plays a serve-and-volley game style, a return and come-in game style,” Ojeda said. “So if you start missing first serves or if the opponent sits on the same serve, then you’ve got to be able to change it up a tiny bit.”
Finally, Georgia sealed the sweep with a win on Court 5. Mattioli got up 4-2 on Dong, but gave up four straight from there to lose the first set 6-4. She couldn’t regain the momentum and fell 6-2 in the second.
Scott won a hard-fought set on Court 1, 7-5 against Anastasiia Lopato, but her second set never saw completion. Britez Risso was about to enter her third set when the match was clinched. Aulia was up 4-1 in her third set after winning the first frame 6-3 and struggling in the second, 6-1.
“I think we’re playing well, honestly, and we just need to try to piece it all together,” Aulia said. “Definitely trust, trust each other, trust the process, trust the coaches.”
As Tennessee comes near the end of a difficult regular season schedule in the gauntlet of the SEC, Ojeda hopes her players can learn valuable lessons as they enter tournament play.
“The biggest lesson is simply, who do we want to be on a day-to-day basis, and whoever we want to be, we’ve got to make sure that we’re practicing that,” Ojeda said. “The fun thing about the SEC is, 14 out of the 16 teams in our conference are really good, so we’re all preparing each other for what comes next in the postseason. But when it’s all said and done, we’ve got to be practicing every day who we want to be.”
The Lady Vols drop under .500 in conference play for the first time this season. They return home for the final weekend of the regular season, beginning with a matchup against Ole Miss on Thursday, April 9, at 5 p.m. ET.
