Upcoming Event: Men's Tennis versus ITA Regionals on October 15, 2025
Men's Tennis
vs ITA Regionals
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.
"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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
Utah 4, #23 Iowa 3
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
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
"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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
Utah 4, #23 Iowa 3
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
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
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
Utah Men's Tennis 2025-26 Pronunciations
Wednesday, September 10
Role models. Trailblazers. Legends. Celebrating our #AAPI student-athletes this month and always.
Monday, May 20
2019 Men's Tennis NCAA Tournament Press Conference
Tuesday, May 14
Utah Takes on #1 USC Friday, April 6
Wednesday, June 01