Tennessee women’s tennis handled business in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, defeating Elon, 4-0.
The No. 10 seed Lady Vols (18-7) advance to the second round to take on Pepperdine. The match is scheduled for a 4 p.m. start Saturday.
Tennessee defeats Elon: How it happened
Tennessee head coach Alison Ojeda employed a similar lineup to their last match. Court 1 saw No. 30 Catherine Aulia and Leyla Britez Risso take on Simone Bergeron and Mariana Reding.
“Throughout this season, that team has been the best team,” Ojeda said. “Of everybody that we tried. And we’ve had some good teams. The goal is to win two out of three, not one out of the three. And if you don’t have a top two you can rely on, then you have got to switch things up, so that’s what we decided to do a few weeks ago.”
Aulia and Britez Risso have been masterful in their season together. The two have lost a combined three doubles contests in their entire 2025 season. The winning continued against Elon as they struck first with a 6-1 win.
“We just like playing together, Aulia said. “We have a good friendship and it’s easy with her, we don’t even have to speak really, so it’s really easy and we have a lot of fun.”
The two were followed by Elza Tomase and Saray Yli-Piipari at Court 2, who defeated Helen Sarikulaya and Lisa Kranec in a 6-2 victory. The two wins clinched the doubles point for the Lady Vols.
Entering her singles match, Aulia had won only one of her last six completed contests. She turned in one of her best performances of the season, winning Court 2, 6-0, 6-0 over Elon’s Reding.
“I feel like I’ve been working hard the last two weeks,” Aulia said. “We’ve had a break and just tried to play with confidence. Going into tomorrow I knew that I needed to try to play as well as I want to continue to play tomorrow. Just coming in with an aggressive mindset.”
Yli-Piipari handled business in her first career postseason matchup on Court 5. She defeated Elon’s Madison Cordisco, 6-0, 6-1.
With the three-point advantage, the Lady Vols needed one more court to clinch the first round victory in the tournament.
Court 3 was the clincher. Britez Risso defeated Sarikulaya, 6-1, 6–4 to push the Lady Vols into the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Lady Vols take on Pepperdine Saturday in what serves as a rematch from February when Tennessee defeated Pepperdine, 4-3, in the ITA Indoor Championships.
“Let’s focus on ourselves,” Ojeda said. “We put in all the work, but let’s have that one more ball mentality. We’re gonna run down everything and if we lose to the team that came out better than us? Then good job, but I don’t think there’s too many teams in the country who can do that.”
