Lady Vols Commandeer Through Day Two of UT Invite

Saturday, January 10

Knoxville, Tenn.

1 p.m. ET Doubles // 2 p.m. ET Singles

University of Tennessee

UT Invite

January 10, 2026 | Women's Tennis

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The University of Tennessee's women's team continued action at the UT Women's Invite Saturday adding seven total victories, five singles and two doubles, on the second day of the spring season.

"I'm really excited about the way our girls competed," head coach Alison Ojeda said. "As you get tired, sometimes, the level of performance drops but ours didn't. The girls were fit and emotionally, mentally and physically tough from start to finish."

"In doubles there were lots of first serves, first balls, and returns in which is something we wanted to work on from yesterday," Ojeda said. "And Arizona State was a tough challenge on every court, I thought all 12 players performed at a pretty high level for us to stay solid the entire time was great."

Tennessee grabbed two double set wins against Vanderbilt's from the duos of No. 15 Catherine Aulia/Leyla Britez Risso on court one and Francesca Mattioli/Vanesa Suarez on court two. Both claimed 6-3 victories to remain undefeated going into day three of the UT Invite.

Complete results for the UT Invite can be found on the event homepage

Now turning its attention towards singles, Tennessee performed like a well-oiled machine for the second straight day going 5-1. Tennessee's number four Francesca Mattioli delivered the most lopsided match of the day, posting a 6-1, 6-2, score on Arizona State's Zlata Bartanusz. Junior Saray Yli-Piipari continued the trend with a decisive victory of her own notching set scores of 6-2, 6-0.

Court one was the showcase match of day two between No 26. Britez Risso and Arizona State's Vivian Ovrotsky. Set one was a ping pong affair with both players trading blows to start play at 1-1. The set defining moment came in game eight when she found herself down 30 to love. Britez Risso climbed back to force sudden death where she delivered a well-timed slam to secure the set. Set two was much the same as Britez Risso and Ovrotsky continued to play blows. In a blink and miss it moment, she delivered a service winner to go up 6-5. Ovrotsky quickly responded with a set win of her own to force a tiebreaker set. The tiebreaker set was all Britez Risso as she dominated with a 7-1 finish to seal the match.

No. 82 Elim Yan had a commanding victory of her own in set one with a 6-1 finish. Set two was a much closer affair that saw Yan grind out at 6-4 result after going up five sets in a hurry.

The Lady Vols are back in action tomorrow for the final day of the UT Invite. Tennessee will play Baylor in doubles at 11:30 a.m. ET and Vanderbilt* in singles after that in the Goodfriend Tennis Center.

*This match will not count towards SEC Play