Costa Mesa’s Adams Rebounds to Win the Title : Racquetball: She loses first game to Caryn McKinney, then rallies to win the next three and the Ektelon championship.

Lynn Adams left her native Costa Mesa for Chicago a month ago, but Sunday afternoon, she made it clear her heart--and spirit--are still in California.

Adams lost the first game, but rallied to take the next three, defeating Atlanta’s Caryn McKinney, 10-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-2, in the final match to win the title of the Ektelon Women’s Racquetball Classic at Racquetball World.

Married in December, Adams, the dominant women’s pro racquetball player of the past decade, moved to Chicago with her new husband.

“I’m a Midwestern gal now,” Adams, 33, joked after Sunday’s match.

But on the court, Adams displayed the steady, all-around game that made her the top-ranked player of the Women’s Professional Racquetball Assn. seven times since 1980.

Adams took a 10-0 lead in the first game, but McKinney, 33, battled back with jam serves and off-speeds to take the next 11 points and win the first game.

“I had plenty of opportunities to score that 11th point,” Adams said. “But as the chances and points went by and she started catching up, I started thinking about it. I fell right into that trap.”

Still, the third-seeded McKinney, the WPRA national champion in 1989, was wary of Adams’ comeback potential.

“Against some players, if you do something devastating to them like that first game, they fold,” McKinney said. “Not Lynn. She knows that you have to start the next game over at 0-0.”

Adams took the second game, 11-8, but the players fought to a 9-9 tie in the third.

Adams won the third scoring with an irretrievable rollout shot into the right corner and then forcing McKinney into an error with a well-placed lob deep into the left corner.

“Lynn is quick and fast and she just sets up and rips the ball,” said McKinney, who is also a triathlete. “You have to be precise when you have an offensive opponent like that.”

In the final game, Adams was nearly flawless, scoring seven of the last eight points on kills--shots less than three inches above the bottom of the front wall.

“It was just accumulation at that point,” Adams said. “Caryn was playing extremely well, but she was still losing. It’s frustrating to know that you’re hitting the ball well and not winning the games.”

Sunday’s final match was a reunion for McKinney and Adams, who also met last year in the championship match.

“Lynn is one of my favorite people to play and it’s been a while since I’ve had the privilege to play against her,” McKinney said. “We had a great time in here today--until the last game, that is.”

This year’s Santa Ana event, with Adams taking home the winner’s check of $4,000, was the first of seven stops on the 1991 WPRA tour, which includes an event in Anchorage, Alaska. The tour next moves to Atlanta Feb. 1.

For Adams, the circuit’s all-time leader in tour victories (48) and prize money (more than $900,000), Sunday’s victory marked a strong start to what might be her final season.

“Even if I don’t retire, I know I’m toward the end of my career anyway,” said Adams, who has battled arthritis and foot injuries in recent years. “I want to leave the game as the No. 1 player. Not too many people in any sport can do that.”