ASU Men’s Tennis: Sun Devils fall to Utes in Salt Lake City

(Photo: Patricia Vicente/WCSN)

The Arizona State men’s tennis team lost 4-3 in a back and forth match to the Utah Utes on Saturday afternoon at the George S. Eccles Tennis Center in Salt Lake City.

ASU began the day by winning the doubles point. The Sun Devil’s pair of Tim Ruehl and Michael Geerts started off winning their match 6-4 over Utah’s Randy Cory and Russell Benkaim. ASU’s Makey Rakotomalala and Andrea Bolla then dropped their match 6-4 to Utah’s Joe Woolley and Egbert Weverink which meant Benjamin Hannestad and William Kirkman would have to close out Dan Little and Azat Hankuliyev to give the Sun Devils the point. They would defeat Little and Hankuliyev 7-6 to give the Sun Devils the doubles point.

In singles play, the Sun Devils played well but could not pull out the match. Randy Cory breezed through his match with Tim Ruehl, winning in straight sets 6-2, 6-4 to tie the match at 1-1. Makey Rakotomalala would then defeat Egbert Weverink 6-3, 7-6 to put ASU back up 2-1.

The Utes would again tie up the match when David Micevski closed out his 7-5, 6-3 defeat of Benjamin Hannestad. ASU then would go back on top 3-2 when William Kirkman completed his defeat of Joe Woolley in a second set tie break 7-5, 7-6.

Utah would battle back again to tie the match 3-3 when Dan Little finished off Michael Geerts 7-5, 7-5. This put the match in the hands of ASU’s Andrea Bolla and Utah’s Santiago Sierra who were playing the only three set match of the day.

Sierra crushed Bolla in the last set 6-2 to give Utah the victory 4-3.

The loss drops ASU to 11-7 overall and the team is now winless in both official PAC-12 matches of the season.

The Sun Devils travel to Eugene, Oregon for a conference matchup with the Oregon Ducks on Friday at 3:00 p.m. MST.

Results:

Doubles

Tim Ruehl/Michael Geerts (ASU) def. Randy Cory/Russell Benkaim (UTAH), 6-4

Joe Woolley/Egbert Weverink (UTAH) def. Makey Rakotomalala/Andrea Bolla (ASU), 6-4

Benjamin Hannestad/William Kirkman (ASU) def. Dan Little/Azat Hankuliyev (UTAH), 7-6

Order of finish: 1,2,3

Singles

Dan Little (UTAH) def. Michael Geerts (ASU), 7-5, 7-5

David Micevski (UTAH) def. Benjamin Hannestad (ASU), 7-5, 6-3