Upcoming Event: Men's Tennis versus Utah Invitational on October 3, 2025
Men's Tennis
vs Utah Invitational
Friday, February 21
Salt Lake City, UT
2:00 PM
University of Utah
4
vs
3
Iowa
Men's Tennis Upsets No. 23 Iowa to Remain Perfect at Home
2/21/2020 5:53 PM | Men's Tennis
SALT LAKE CITY – The University of Utah men's tennis team upset No. 23-ranked Iowa on Friday afternoon, downing the Hawkeyes with a score of 4-3. The big win for Utah improved their home record to 8-0 at the George S. Eccles Tennis Center this season.
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"It was great to finally get over the hump today and win a close match," said head coach Roeland Brateanu. "We have lost a couple really close matches this year and it is nice to get on the other side of those this time. I thought for a while there we were really controlling the match. We almost gave it away, but the guys did a very good job of buckling down and finally rewarded themselves by beating a good team. Hopefully we can carry this on for the rest of the season."
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Beginning the day with doubles, all three matches across the board had little separation. Seniors Azat Hankuliyev and Slava Shainyan picked up the first doubles win in the No. 3 position, defeating Matt Clegg and Joe Tyler with a score of 7-6. Iowa then evened doubles with a win at the No. 2 position in another extremely tight match.Â
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To then seal the doubles point, the No. 54-ranked doubles duo of Randy Cory and Russell Benkaim pulled off the upset against the nation's No. 10-ranked duo of Oliver Okonkwo and Will Davies 6-4 at the No. 1 spot. The junior pairing for Utah on court one put the Utes up 1-0 going into singles.
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In singles, Cory carried momentum from his doubles win into singles and jumped out ahead of Iowa's Morgan Lohan on court five. Cory posted a quick 6-2, 6-2 victory to extend the Utah lead to 2-0. Following behind his doubles partner, Benkaim posted a huge win in the No. 2 position for the Utes against Oliver Okonkwo. Benkaim picked up a 6-2 win in the first set, but Okonkwo stormed back to send the match to the decisive third set. Benkaim led early in the set and fought off a short rally from his opponent before closing out the set 6-4 to win his match and put the Utes up 3-0.
The Hawkeyes wouldn't go away quietly and rallied to win more extremely competitive matches on courts four and one to trail just 3-2. All eyes were on court three as Shainyan moved close to clinching the upset. Shainyan downed Joe Tyler the first set 6-3, but dropped a tight 7-5 second set. The Ute senior pulled through and best Tyler 6-2 to complete the Utah victory against No. 23 Iowa, 4-2.
With the match clinched, Hankuliyev's match was played out and after splitting sets, Hankuliyev and Jason Kerstthen played a tiebreak to end the match. Despite a tremendous effort, Hankuliyev came up just short on court six 7-10 to see Iowa earn their third point in the match.Â
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Utah will be back in action tomorrow at the Eccles Tennis Center to first face off against Montana State at 10 a.m. MT. Utah will wrap up the day with a match against Southern Utah at 4 p.m. MT. A stream for both matches can be found here.
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Utah 4, #23 Iowa 3
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Doubles (3,2,1)
#54 Cory/Benkaim (UU) def. #10 Okonkwo/Davies (IOWA), 6-4
Snezhko/Allaf (IOWA) def. Capalbo/Thayne (UU), 7-5
Shainyan/Hankuliyev (UU) def. Clegg/Tyler (IOWA), 7-6
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Singles (5,2,4,1,3,6)
#61 Kareem Allaf (IOWA) def. Franco Capalbo (UU), 7-6, 6-4
Russell Benkaim (UU) def. Oliver Okonkwo (IOWA), 6-2, 2-6, 6-4
Slava Shainyan (UU) def. Joe Tyler (IOWA), 6-3, 5-7, 6-2
Will Davies (IOWA) def. Wally Thayne (UU), 6-0, 3-6, 6-3
Randy Cory (UU) def. Morgan Lohan (IOWA), 6-2, 6-2
Jason Kerst (IOWA) def. Azat Hankuliyev (UU), 7-5, 5-7, 10-7
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"It was great to finally get over the hump today and win a close match," said head coach Roeland Brateanu. "We have lost a couple really close matches this year and it is nice to get on the other side of those this time. I thought for a while there we were really controlling the match. We almost gave it away, but the guys did a very good job of buckling down and finally rewarded themselves by beating a good team. Hopefully we can carry this on for the rest of the season."
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Beginning the day with doubles, all three matches across the board had little separation. Seniors Azat Hankuliyev and Slava Shainyan picked up the first doubles win in the No. 3 position, defeating Matt Clegg and Joe Tyler with a score of 7-6. Iowa then evened doubles with a win at the No. 2 position in another extremely tight match.Â
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To then seal the doubles point, the No. 54-ranked doubles duo of Randy Cory and Russell Benkaim pulled off the upset against the nation's No. 10-ranked duo of Oliver Okonkwo and Will Davies 6-4 at the No. 1 spot. The junior pairing for Utah on court one put the Utes up 1-0 going into singles.
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In singles, Cory carried momentum from his doubles win into singles and jumped out ahead of Iowa's Morgan Lohan on court five. Cory posted a quick 6-2, 6-2 victory to extend the Utah lead to 2-0. Following behind his doubles partner, Benkaim posted a huge win in the No. 2 position for the Utes against Oliver Okonkwo. Benkaim picked up a 6-2 win in the first set, but Okonkwo stormed back to send the match to the decisive third set. Benkaim led early in the set and fought off a short rally from his opponent before closing out the set 6-4 to win his match and put the Utes up 3-0.
The Hawkeyes wouldn't go away quietly and rallied to win more extremely competitive matches on courts four and one to trail just 3-2. All eyes were on court three as Shainyan moved close to clinching the upset. Shainyan downed Joe Tyler the first set 6-3, but dropped a tight 7-5 second set. The Ute senior pulled through and best Tyler 6-2 to complete the Utah victory against No. 23 Iowa, 4-2.
With the match clinched, Hankuliyev's match was played out and after splitting sets, Hankuliyev and Jason Kerstthen played a tiebreak to end the match. Despite a tremendous effort, Hankuliyev came up just short on court six 7-10 to see Iowa earn their third point in the match.Â
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Utah will be back in action tomorrow at the Eccles Tennis Center to first face off against Montana State at 10 a.m. MT. Utah will wrap up the day with a match against Southern Utah at 4 p.m. MT. A stream for both matches can be found here.
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Utah 4, #23 Iowa 3
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Doubles (3,2,1)
#54 Cory/Benkaim (UU) def. #10 Okonkwo/Davies (IOWA), 6-4
Snezhko/Allaf (IOWA) def. Capalbo/Thayne (UU), 7-5
Shainyan/Hankuliyev (UU) def. Clegg/Tyler (IOWA), 7-6
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Singles (5,2,4,1,3,6)
#61 Kareem Allaf (IOWA) def. Franco Capalbo (UU), 7-6, 6-4
Russell Benkaim (UU) def. Oliver Okonkwo (IOWA), 6-2, 2-6, 6-4
Slava Shainyan (UU) def. Joe Tyler (IOWA), 6-3, 5-7, 6-2
Will Davies (IOWA) def. Wally Thayne (UU), 6-0, 3-6, 6-3
Randy Cory (UU) def. Morgan Lohan (IOWA), 6-2, 6-2
Jason Kerst (IOWA) def. Azat Hankuliyev (UU), 7-5, 5-7, 10-7
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Players Mentioned
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
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/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
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