MoKanNeb champions detail enjoyment of adult tournament series

Zinovii Nahirniak and Ting-Ya Hsu, the men’s and women’s winners of the 2023 USTA Missouri Valley MoKanNeb, discuss why they played in the four-part tournament series. Hsu was born and raised in Taiwan and is being featured as part of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, which takes place annually in May in the U.S.

Zinovii Nahirniak—a standout sophomore for the William Woods University men’s tennis team in Fulton, Mo.—was encouraged by his college coach, Chance Joost, to participate in a USTA tournament series. With Nahirniak staying in Fulton last summer instead of returning to his native Ukraine, he decided to give the series a shot.

Nahirniak participated in three of the four adult tournaments offered in the 2023 USTA Missouri Valley MoKanNeb series. He captured two doubles titles and one singles championship en route to accumulating the most points in the series, which came with a $500 grand prize.

“It was my first time playing actual tournaments—not the college matches—in the U.S.A.,” Nahirniak said. “I really liked the organization and the opportunity for college players or tennis players here to have a nice tournament and win some prize money.”

Joost—who Nahirniak said has been like his “second father” since he arrived in America in 2022—thought MoKanNeb would be a good opportunity for Nahirniak to gain some experience and make improvements. Joost traveled with Nahirniak to watch and coach him, and even got in a little tennis himself.

In fact, Joost and Nahirniak faced off against each other in the doubles championship of the USTA HOA Kansas City Open in June. Nahirniak and his doubles partner, William Woods teammate Patrick Shelepov, bested Joost and his partner, Ben Grumley. Grumley just happens to be Nahirniak’s doubles partner at WWU this year, and the duo has been ranked as high as the No. 2 NAIA doubles team in the country.

“It was real different,” Nahirniak said of playing against Joost/Grumley. “The start of the game, I don’t know, I’d say awkward. But then, yeah, you just lock in to the game. You think about how to win. We won in straight sets (6-3, 6-2), but it was a respectful game. All of us had a lot of fun.”

Ting-Ya Hsu also had a blast participating in the 2023 MoKanNeb series. Hsu, a former Wichita State University women’s tennis player, went a perfect 4 for 4 in the women’s open singles division of MoKanNeb to earn the $500 grand prize.

First, Hsu won a pair of matches to capture the Omaha Memorial Day Open in May. About a month later, Hsu won all three of her singles matches to claim The Jayhawk Open in Topeka. In late June, Hsu didn’t drop a game in her two singles contests to win the HOA Kansas City Open. And at the end of July, Hsu capped off MoKanNeb with two straight-set wins to earn the Wichita AirCapital Open title.

“I love competing,” Hsu said. “I like to compete just for fun when I have time outside of my job. … I enjoy that you get to go to different places to play tournaments. That’s the most fun part.”

Before she began attending Wichita State in 2016, Hsu was a top-ranked junior competitor in her home country of Taiwan. Hsu—who speaks Taiwanese, Chinese and English—graduated from WSU with a bachelor’s and master’s degree. She played five seasons of tennis for the Shockers, helping them to two NCAA Tournaments.