No. 3 Women’s tennis downs No. 11 Tennessee at home

Box Score
No. 3 Women’s tennis downs No. 11 Tennessee at homeNo. 3 Women’s tennis downs No. 11 Tennessee at home
Riley Hubbard/Auburn Tigers

AUBURN, Ala. – No. 3 Auburn women’s tennis notched its sixth straight SEC win on Thursday afternoon, defeating No. 11 Tennessee by a 4-1 score under windy conditions at the Yarbrough Tennis Center in Auburn, Alabama. The Tigers rallied to claim a close doubles point, then won three singles matches to secure the victory.

“We’ll always take a win for sure,” Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo said. “In the doubles we got really lucky. I was disappointed that we were not ready to go. We had really tough conditions. It was chilly and windy, probably the windiest match I’ve been a part of since I’ve been at Auburn, but I feel like they handled the conditions better and we were fortunate that we found a way to win.

“In singles, we started poorly and lost three first sets from our three seniors at the top of the lineup and we just can’t have that. The conditions got better as the match went on, but I still don’t think we played our best today and we escaped. We need to get better; we’ve been practicing really well and it needs to translate into the matches with six players that are ready to battle for every single point. I’m looking for a response on Saturday. We want to be the best versions of ourselves and that’s what we’re going to be striving for.”

Angella Okutoyi and Merna Refaat cruised to their ninth win together this spring to open doubles, defeating Catherine Aulia and Leyla Britez Risso 6-0 at the No. 2 position. At the No. 3 doubles position, Tennessee’s Maeve Thornton and Katrina Scott led Ekaterina Khairutdinova and Ashton Bowers 5-3 and fended off a late comeback effort from the Tiger duo to win 7-5 and set up a winner-take-all match on court one.

On the top doubles court, Tennessee’s Francesca Mattioli and Vanesa Suarez earned a break on a deciding point to take a 4-2 lead. The Auburn duo of DJ Bennett and Ava Esposito fought back from a 5-2 deficit to tie the match at five and ultimately force a tiebreaker. With the tiebreaker tied at five, Bennett and Esposito won the next two points to secure the doubles point. Auburn has yet to surrender a doubles point this season, winning all 23 so far in 2026.

Auburn then opened singles with three opening-set wins on the bottom three positions.

Bowers remained undefeated in dual matches at the No. 5 singles position, defeating No. 105 Francesca Mattioli 6-1, 6-1 to give Auburn a quick 2-0 advantage. The Auburn sophomore’s win improved her overall singles record to 24-3 this season and 14-0 in dual matches.

Refaat began her match by jumping out to a 4-1 advantage over Catherine Aulia at the No. 4 singles position. Aulia fought back to tie the match at four and the two sides traded breaks to tie at five-all. The Auburn sophomore then broke serve in the next game and held serve to win the opening set 7-5. With the second set tied at two, Refaat caught fire and won each of the next four games to claim the match 7-5, 6-2 and give Auburn a 3-0 lead.

On the top singles court, Katrina Scott won the opening set over Bennett 6-3, then came back in the second set to force a tiebreaker. Scott won the tiebreaker to claim the match in straight sets and narrow Auburn’s lead to 3-1.

All three remaining matches entered a third set, as Okutoyi and Khairutdinova won their respective second sets to force a third and Tennessee forced a third set at the No. 6 position.

On court six, an early break helped Auburn’s Alice Battesti take a 3-1 lead in the first set over Audrey Aulia. Aulia bounced back to tie the match at four, but Battesti earned a break and held serve to win the set 6-4. Aulia then closed out the second set with four straight games to force a decisive third set. Battesti picked up an early break to take a 3-2 advantage, then dominated the remainder of the set to win 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 and clinch the victory for the Tigers.

With the win, Auburn improves its record to 22-1 this season and a perfect 6-0 record in conference play. The Tigers have also won each of their last nine matches and all 14 home matches this season. Auburn has defeated six teams ranked inside the ITA top-15 this season.

Up next, the Tigers will host Kentucky at the Yarbrough Tennis Center on Saturday at noon CT. Fans in attendance on Saturday will receive tennis bingo cards with sponsored prizes and there will be a free kids clinic after the match with the Auburn coaches and players.

 

 

#3 Auburn 4, #11 Tennessee 1

Singles Results:

  1. Katrina Scott (TENN) def. #33 DJ Bennett (AUB) 6-3, 7-6 (7-1)
  2. #50 E. Khairutdinova (AUB) vs. Vanesa Suarez (TENN) 6-7 (4-7), 6-1, 4-3, unfinished
  3. #91 Angella Okutoyi (AUB) vs. #20 Leyla Britez Risso (TENN) 4-6, 6-4, 2-4, unfinished
  4. Merna Refaat (AUB) def. #74 Catherine Aulia (TENN) 7-5, 6-2
  5. #27 Ashton Bowers (AUB) def. #105 Francesca Mattioli (TENN) 6-1, 6-1
  6. #119 Alice Battesti (AUB) def. Audrey Aulia (TENN) 6-4, 2-6, 6-2

Doubles Results:

  1. #14 DJ Bennett/Ava Esposito (AUB) def. Francesca Mattioli/Vanesa Suarez (TENN) 7-6 (7-5)
  2. #39 Angella Okutoyi/Merna Refaat (AUB) def. Catherine Aulia/Leyla Britez Risso (TENN) 6-0
  3. Maeve Thornton/Katrina Scott (TENN) def. #79 E. Khairutdinova/Ashton Bowers (AUB) 7-5

 

Time of match: 3:11 Order of finish: Doubles: 2,3,1; Singles: 5,4,1,6 Official: Donna Jerome