THE COLLEGES : Cal State Fullerton Notebook / Barbie Ludovise : Starting Over With Healthy New Outlook : Coombes Back With Titans After Lengthy Illness

A year ago, Cal State Fullerton softball player Missy Coombes began her sophomore season with high hopes.

Coombes had hoped to improve on an impressive freshman season that included a spot on the all-Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. team. She hit .336 that year, third-best on the Titan roster, and led the team with 38 RBIs.

But as her sophomore season progressed, Coombes’ dreams of success waned. Instead of having her usual high-energy level, Coombes was constantly fatigued. She had a difficult time staying awake in class. In the outfield, she found it hard to concentrate, even to the point where just picking up the ball seemed too much.

And, although she ate the same amount as always, Coombes, who is 5-feet-6 1/2, dropped from a sturdy 150 to a scrawny 130 pounds. Though her arms and legs had gotten very thin, her stomach began to protrude, as if she were pregnant (she wasn’t).

Ten months later, after weeks of continual frustration with her game as well as her generally poor outlook on life, Coombes, on the insistance by her parents, went to see her family physician. Ultrasound tests revealed a large mass within her abdominal cavity.

A week later, on Nov. 18, doctors removed an 18-pound ovarian tumor. The biopsy showed the tumor was benign.

“The week before surgery, they told me there was an 80% chance that the tumor was benign, a 20% chance that it was cancerous,” Coombes said. “I had a week to think about it. I had a week to think the best and to think the worst. I had a week to think about not having too long to live . . .

“I evaluated everything, my life, why I was on this earth, everything. . . . In that situation, you realize what’s really important.

“Once it was over, I realized the only way to live, is to live life to the fullest. I’m trying to do that in everything I do. You never know whether you’ll be around tomorrow.”

Today, Coombes is almost fully recovered, although she occasionally feels twinges of pain along her side and stomach, especially when she plays softball.

Has it bothered her game? Not one bit.

Coombes, a first baseman, is the Titans’ leading hitter this season, batting .516 (16-for-31). In nine games, Coombes leads the team in doubles (four), putouts (seven), and has three stolen bases. Last week, in a 3-1 loss to Utah, Coombes went four for four.

But the most memorable moment--for Coombes, her parents or her coaches-- was her first hit this season, a double in the Titans’ season opener against Northridge.

“It was a reborn person there (at the plate),” said her mother, Linda Coombes. “It was my old Missy again.”

Linda and her husband knew something was very wrong after watching their daughter in a preseason scrimmage.

“I saw a daughter that was just not my daughter,” Linda Coombes said. “I told her to come home (Arcadia) to get checked out. The doctor told us it was a tumor, and that it had gotten to the point where it was just feeding off her for energy.”

Why did Coombes wait so long before seeing a physician?

Coombes said it was a combination of not having the time (besides playing softball and going to school full time she had a part-time job delivering pizza), as well as the all-too-common notion that if something were wrong, she didn’t want to know about it.

“When I was losing weight, my friends and my coaches kept nagging me to go to doctor, some thought I was anorexic,” Coombes said. “But some of my friends said, ‘Hey, you look good. You’re losing weight.’

“I was eating the same I always had, but I kept losing weight. I guess I should have wondered about that, but I figured, gosh, maybe my metabolism has changed. Plus I was always so busy and stuff, I didn’t sit down and think about worrying about it.”

It wasn’t until Coombes’ abdominal cavity began to expand that she became concerned. Many friends asked her if she were pregnant. Coombes tried to joke about it, calling herself a “Buddha belly.”

“It was embarrassing really,” she said. “I wasn’t gaining weight, but my stomach was getting larger. I started doing sit-ups, like 300 a night trying to get rid of my stomach. I did them non-stop, every morning, every afternoon, all the time. But it wasn’t getting any smaller.

“My roommates and my friends were saying, ‘You should go to the doctor. There’s something wrong, no way should your stomach be like that.’ But I didn’t want to. Subconsciously maybe I knew something was wrong, but, like a lot of people, I wasn’t really wanting to know.”

Coombes said she had a physical--only because it is required for members of the school’s sports teams--at the student health center in early September. She said she didn’t tell the doctor about any of her concerns.

“He (the doctor) didn’t say anything, really. (After seeing her stomach) he asked me if I drank a lot of beer. I said no, he said OK. So since I passed that physical I figured I didn’t need to go to (another) doctor.”

(Dr. Marianne Hollander, acting medical director of Cal State Fullerton’s Student Health and Counciling Service, said Tuesday she had not heard of Coombes’ case, and had no comment).

Two months later, when her parents told her to see a doctor, Coombes agreed.

“I know I looked very bad, I was real slow, I couldn’t run, I couldn’t move,” she said. “Plus I couldn’t eat. My tumor was so large, that lots of times when I ate, my stomach would push up on my lungs so I couldn’t breathe very well.

“It had gotten to the point where I knew it was time to see a doctor.”

Coombes’ surgeon, Dr. Howard K. Newman of San Gabriel, said her case was quite unusual.

“By weight, her tumor was almost 19 pounds,” Newman said. “I have never seen anything like it in my life. Because it was benign, she probably would not have died from this tumor, but (her body) was certainly very debilitated from it.

“I was amazed she was as athletically competent as she obviously was.”

Along with Coombes, six other starters return for the Titans this season. They include sophomore left-hander Anjie Bryant, junior outfielder Kristine Glomboske and junior outfielder Carey Hess.

The Titans are young, with five freshmen, two sophomores, nine juniors and no seniors. But some new talent is showing much promise.

Junior catcher Debbie Hartwig, from Mission Viejo High School, was the state community college catcher of the year for Saddleback College last season. Malia Ouzts, a junior outfielder, is a transfer from Moorpark College and was an all-state player last year.

And former Canyon High star, freshman second baseman Nikki Lewis, has been a surprise with her power.

The Titans, 6-3 overall, are ranked eighth in the NCAA and third in the Big West Conference preseason polls. Coach Judy Garman said the team’s potential is very good, though the Titans have had a problem with inconsistency in the early season.

“We play very well at times and other games we don’t,” Garman said. “That’s a sign of a young team, though. Our whole infield is brand new. We have to get them working together.”

Strengths? Garman said Fullerton is faster this year, making more things happen on base. “Fullerton used to be known as big and strong, but this year we’ll be smaller, but faster,” Garman said. “That’s good though. That’s the way the game’s going.”

The Titan women’s gymnastics team (10-2, 7-1) is ranked fourth in the nation.

Saturday at the UCLA Invitational, which featured five nationally ranked teams, Fullerton finished second behind second-ranked UCLA.

Lisa Dolan tied for fourth place in the all-around with 37.90 points.