Matsumoto’s Recovery Taking Shape

You might think that regaining her quickness would be the most difficult part. Or maybe bringing her ground strokes back, or possibly regaining consistency in her serve.

But no.

It’s the hair.

Marni Matsumoto returned to the tennis courts for the Cal State Fullerton women’s team this spring after an automobile accident last year that resulted in emergency brain surgery. Things are going so well that the growth of her hair can actually be one of her top priorities.

“This semester I finally feel like I’m getting back to where I was,” Matsumoto said. “It was so frustrating. I felt like I had to start all over again. Now I’m getting my consistency back. I know I have my strength back--I’m stronger than I was before.”

Coach Bill Reynolds first suspected something was wrong March 28, 1992, when Matsumoto was late for Titan Tennis Classic. She was due on the courts at 7 for an 8 a.m. match and, as Reynolds says, Matsumoto is always punctual.

“At five or 10 after seven, I started getting worried,” Reynolds said. “At a quarter to eight, I called her dad and asked if she was there. He said, ‘No, coach, she should be there.’

“I went out to start the match and came in at 8:15 and called her dad, but he wasn’t there. I talked to her sister, and they had gotten the call from the CHP.”

Matsumoto was on the way to her match when one of the tires on her car exploded while she was on the Costa Mesa Freeway.

“All I remember is trying to avoid the cars on the side of me,” Matsumoto said. “Witnesses said I curved in front of them and hit the island by an on-ramp and hit a tree.”

The left side of her skull was fractured, and she was rushed to the hospital. Miraculously, she was healthy enough to go home after four or five days, but about six weeks later, noticed her left leg was still sore. Turned out it, too, had been fractured.

Before she could think of her next match, she had to think of getting herself together.

“I recovered quickly,” she said. “I think a lot of it was because of my hair. I used to have long hair, and they had to shave half of my head.

“I know it sounds petty, but that was the hardest part to adjust to. Ask my roommate. I drove her crazy--’Is my hair growing?’ ”

Reynolds, laughing, confirmed that dealing with her hair was as bad as anything else for Matsumoto.

“Her toughest moment?” Reynolds said. “It lasted about six months. Her hair. Tough moment.”

Matsumoto wore baseball caps for four months to cover it.

“I didn’t want a Sinead O’Connor haircut,” she said.

She was as determined in her rehabilitation as she was when she looked in the mirror. When she could walk, she started walking the three-mile course near her home that she previously had run.

“Walking was good,” Matsumoto said. “When you run, you pass so many things so quickly. Walking, you see everything. Trees, a flower. I was like, ‘Wow, I never saw this before.’ ”

She rode a stationary bicycle and, soon was able to run again. By June, she was hitting a tennis ball again.

Reynolds supervised some of her running on a track. When the tennis became frustrating, her father would accompany her with a bucket of balls to the courts and drill her on her ground strokes.

Matsumoto didn’t miss a day all summer. When her family took a vacation to New Mexico, Matsumoto did her roadwork on unfamiliar roads.

And when the tennis season started, she began to make her way back. Before Monday’s match against Pacific, she was 10-14 this spring--2-2 at No. 5 singles and 8-12 at No. 6 singles. Playing doubles with three partners, she was 7-13.

And the hair? She has a full head of it and it is shoulder-length, inching down her neck every day.

The comeback is nearly complete.

The streaking baseball team, ranked second nationally this week in the Collegiate Baseball poll and third in Baseball America, could be stopped today. The Titans are scheduled to play Loyola Marymount at 2:30 p.m., but if the jury in the Rodney King civil rights case reaches a verdict, Loyola Marymount intends to cancel classes today, which would prompt the cancellation of the baseball game.

“We never play a home game where we (are scheduled) to play it,” said Coach Augie Garrido, referring not only to the King trial, but to the rains that forced the cancellation of several early-season games. “It’s just one of the things we roll with.

“It just shows you what a monumental time this is.”

Garrido was pleased with Fullerton’s three-game sweep at Nevada Las Vegas over the weekend, particularly Saturday’s 13-9 victory in which the Titans overcame a six-run inning by the Rebels.

“We had a high level of concentration,” said Garrido, who has 993 collegiate victories and could win No. 1,000 as early as the weekend of April 23-25, when Fullerton plays host to Grand Canyon and Chapman. “We stayed focused throughout the weekend. We avoided the obvious distractions available in that city away from the field.”

Now, the Titans will return home for the first time since March 28. After today’s scheduled game against Loyola Marymount, the Titans play host to Cal State Long Beach Friday, Saturday and Sunday and then play host to USC on Tuesday.

“Anywhere we hang our lineup card, that’s home,” Garrido said.

Titan Notes

Gene Murphy, Fullerton’s football coach the 13 years, is expected to interview for the position at Fullerton College this week . . . Texas A&M; is ranked first nationally, ahead of Fullerton, in the Collegiate Baseball poll and Texas A&M; and Florida State are ahead of the Titans in the Baseball America poll. Cal State Long Beach, which plays at Titan Field this weekend, is 25th in Baseball America and 29th in Collegiate Baseball . . . Denise DeWalt was named the Big West Conference softball player of the week. DeWalt, a shortstop, batted .471 with six RBIs and eight runs scored as the Titans went 4-0 . . . Cristi Clifford leaves Wednesday for the NCAA Gymnastics Championships this weekend at Oregon State. Clifford finished third in the Western Region in the All-Around . . . The Salsa is playing host to a soccer triangular this weekend at Titan Stadium as a benefit for the Fullerton general scholarship fund. The Salsa will play the Vancouver 86ers at 7 p.m. Saturday, Vancouver will play the Colorado Foxes at 8 and the Salsa will play the Foxes at 9. Each session is a 45-minute half, and the team that finishes with the most goals wins.