2008 Woodie Awards
Men's team wins match despite bad sportsmanship
MEN'S TENNIS
Hillary Gieseman
Issue date: 2/27/06 Section: Sports
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The game started fairly well with UMKC winning the doubles point. UMKC lost the one position match between Richard Harrison/Joe Kane and Vinny Meens/Joe Eckert. Early on, Kane started to argue with the referee. She called him over the line on a serve and he continued to let it bother him. The match was close - UMKC only lost 8-6 - but the team might have won this doubles match if Kane had been more focused on his play and less on the referee.
Two position doubles juniors Jon Ghani/Justin Ghani defeated Nikita Dudar/Jose Guerra of Creighton 8-5. Following them, three position players Roberto Quintanilla/Darren Chiao defeated Chris Miller/Ed Pignatari 8-5.
Then the team started their singles matches. Richard Harrison won his first position match, defeating Jose Guerra fairly handedly, 6-1, 6-0.
In the second position senior Grant Gelina lost his match to Creighton's Nikita Dudar 7-5, 6-3. Gelina proceeded to scream obscenities throughout the entire match and slam his racket onto the ground.
At one point, Dudar served to Gelina and Gelina started to throw a fit saying he was not ready for the serve - reminiscent of a third grader's "but I called timeout." Trying to just get through the match, Dudar apologized and re-served. After losing the match, Grant Gelina threw his racket across the court, forcing the referee to penalize teammate Jon Ghani a point in his match.
Ghani was able to defeat his opponent Vinny Means, 6-4, 7-6. Ghani also demonstrated his inability to control himself and his language. He loudly shouted the "F" word during the match. One can only imagine how out of control Ghani would have been had he not won his match.
At the four position singles, Justin Ghani showed a great example of another player with little to no self control. He too screamed obscenities, threw his racket, and lost his match. Creighton's Ed Pignatari defeated Justin Ghani 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. Justin Ghani probably should have won the match.
