#12 Lady Vols fall, 4-3, to #11 Commodores

Friday, March 27

Knoxville, Tenn.

5 p.m. ET

University of Tennessee

Vanderbilt

March 27, 2026 | Women's Tennis

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The No. 12 University of Tennessee women's tennis team (10-6, 5-5) came up short against No. 11 Vanderbilt (17-5, 7-3) Friday night, 4-3, at the Goodfriend Tennis Center.

"They're really good," Tennessee head coach Alison Ojeda said of the opponent. "We know that. It has nothing to do with us having a slow start or anything like that; they're just good.

"The big thing for us is, we have to make sure that we're willing to understand that a really competitive match at a very high level is going to go back and forth."

The Lady Vols claimed the doubles point with wins on courts two and three to jump to an early lead.

The No. 24-ranked duo of Catherine Aulia and Leyla Britez Risso cruised through their set on court two. They defeated the Commodores' tandem of Erin Pearce and Sophia Webster, 6-3.

After court one went to the Commodores after a late surge, the final pairing of Lady Volunteers Katrina Scott and Maeve Thornton against Vanderbilt's Mia Yamakita and Trinetra Vijayakumar on court three went the distance. After falling behind 6-5, the Tennessee duo rallied to force a tiebreak game. With an intense race to seven, the Lady Volunteers surged ahead and claimed the tiebreaker to seal the doubles point with a 7-6 (7-3) tally.

"Doubles, overall, did an outstanding job getting themselves a huge lead," said Ojeda. "Obviously, anything can happen, and at (court) one doubles, the other team was able to turn it around for a little bit. I think that Fran (Mattioli) and Vanesa (Suarez) did an amazing job getting the lead that they did, and it's just a matter of being able to carry that out and close it out."

In singles competition, Mattioli dominated court five, closing her match quickly against Vanderbilt's Vijayakumar with a steady, 6-3, 6-4 finish. The Lady Volunteers moved into a two-point advantage in the dual.

Court five's conclusion would be the only singles court to finish in straight sets, as all remaining courts would reach decisive third frames.

Vanderbilt's No. 33 Valeria Ray claimed a 6-3 first set on court two against Suarez. In the second set, Suarez battled to a 6-2 set win to force a third stanza. Ray ultimately took the win with a 6-3 set to put the Commodores on the board.

On court four, Catherine Aulia faced off against Vanderbilt's Pearce, where the Lady Volunteer dropped the opening frame of the match, 3-6, before fighting to a strong 6-1 showing in the second. Ultimately, she fell behind a break, and would concede a 4-6 third set to tie the dual at two points apiece.

Calm under pressure, No. 18 Britez Risso rallied for the Lady Volunteers. On court three against Vanderbilt's No. 25 Mia Yamakita, she fell behind early – dropping the first set 5-7. The Paraguayan followed up her opening frame with two sets of poise and control, snatching a 6-4 result in set two and closing out the match with a 6-1 victory for Tennessee's third point.

"She's very resilient," Ojeda said of Britez Risso. "She, as a freshman, was the kid who believed in herself so much that it was tough to get her to understand why she needed to make certain adjustments, because she just believed so much that she was going to win every point she played.

"Now we're at a point where you're seeing that exact same belief in her, at a higher level," Ojeda continued. "I don't care who's on the other side of the net; she's going to walk in there thinking that she's going to win every point that she plays."

A back-and-forth affair, court one went the distance. With Vanderbilt needing the remaining two singles courts for a victory, No. 59 Scott battled Vanderbilt's Bridget Stammel. The Tennessee freshman showed resilience, dropping a tightly contested first set 6-4 before posting an impressive 6-2 result to force a decisive third set. After trading points, Stammel eventually pulled away late for Vanderbilt in the final frame to seal a 6-4 victory and turn all attention to the final match on court six.

Freshman Audrey Aulia withstood various rallies from Vanderbilt's Sophia Webster. After falling 7-5 in the first set, Aulia forced a third set after a commanding 6-1 finish for the middle frame. Pushed to the final moments of the match, Aulia battled – bringing the match to 5-4 in Tennessee's favor before Webster put together three consecutive games to bring the set to a close, 7-5 in favor of Vanderbilt.

"We know exactly what we're doing," Ojeda remarked. "We just have to go out and learn from these matches. I'm confident that our team is one of the best teams in the country, and so I just think that in order for us to show that as we get down in the stretch, there are a couple of little things that we've got to keep learning while we're competing."

NEXT UP:
The Lady Vols will be back in action at home Sunday for a conference matchup with Missouri. First serve is slated for 11 a.m.