CdM’s Tasu happy to be back
It’s been a long way back to playing tennis for Corona del Mar High senior Kylie Tasu.
Just listen to the numbers. Tasu knows them well.
“After four years of 11 different physical therapists and five different doctors, many different scans and blood and tears and all that, I’m finally better and playing,” she said.
Tasu is a valuable piece this season for the CdM girls’ tennis team, which is ranked No. 3 in CIF Southern Section Division 1. She has been competing for the No. 3 singles spot, but wherever she ends up she will benefit the Sea Kings with her power game.
This is her third year on the team, yet she only played her first match for CdM last week, in the season opener against Sage Hill. The issue has been a right shoulder injury, which she first suffered a few years ago while living and playing tournaments in England. The problem didn’t go away when Tasu and her family moved to Newport Beach during her freshman year of high school.
Doctors all told her to take a break from tennis. Tasu still tried out for the CdM team two years ago, as a sophomore.
“I was hoping that in a few weeks it would be fine,” she said. “This was before my first surgery and I was told that I could start playing in a few weeks, but it just took so long. Over and over again, I kept having to tell [the late former CdM coach Brian Ricker] and everyone else that in a couple of weeks, it would be fine. Then before I knew it, the season was over.”
Tasu started feeling better the summer before her junior year, and played one tournament before the shoulder started hurting again. She started seeing Dr. Grant Robicheaux of NewportCare Orthopaedic & Spine Center, and she had her first surgery that July.
“He told me that the tendon in my bicep was so strained that it was going to break in half, so we had to repair that before it did break in half,” Tasu said. “That recovery was the most painful thing of my life; it was super-long. Eventually I started playing again, and maybe six, seven months later I was back in tournament shape. I played in one tournament again, and it started hurting again.”
Another MRI showed a tear, and Tasu had another surgery this past March. This time, Tasu said she was told that the surgery was most often done on baseball pitchers, and was often career-threatening. That scared her, but she didn’t have a choice if she wanted to get back on the court.
Tasu did physical therapy three times a week for a couple of months, and she still goes once a week. But she’s back on the court, although her conditioning is another matter. She had to default her third set against Sage Hill due to cramping in her leg.
“Where she’s at right now, she’s a good player and she’s just getting her legs under her,” CdM Coach Jamie Gresh said. “I have a pretty good gauge of where she’s at, what she needs to work on. A lot of it is just the experience of being in the competitive moments for her. I think the more she’s out there, the more she’ll find her range and find her game.”
Tasu is just happy to be back playing the sport she’s played since she was 7 years old. She said she is interested in both college tennis and the pro tour. She also wants to go to medical school.
At this point, she has certainly spent plenty of time in a doctor’s office.
“For [two] years all I was doing was just sitting down and telling the girls, ‘I will be back,’” Tasu said. “After a while, they stopped believing me. It was really hard to just sit, knowing that I couldn’t play and win for the team, so it feels really good to be back.”
HB competes in Elite Eight
The Huntington Beach High boys’ water polo team is competing in a new tournament, dubbed the “Elite Eight,” at Harvard-Westlake this weekend.
Many of the top teams in Southern California are participating in the eight-team tournament, including host Harvard-Westlake and Mater Dei, the two teams that have combined to win the last six CIF Southern Section Division 1 titles.
“There’s not going to be an easy game,” Huntington Beach Coach Sasa Branisavljevic said. “That’s why we are taking quite a few kids up there, going up there with a roster of 16 boys.”
Huntington Beach opened the tournament Thursday night with a game against Northern California powerhouse Miramonte High of Orinda. The Oilers conclude pool play Friday, with games against Agoura at 1:15 p.m. and Mater Dei at 6:15 p.m. The tournament championship game is scheduled for Saturday at 6:15 p.m.
Cathedral Catholic, Loyola and Sacred Heart Prep are the other teams in the Elite Eight.
The games should be helpful in determining the initial Division 1 Top 10 coaches’ poll, which is due to be released on Monday.
Duo to compete in futures tournament
Newport Beach residents Joseph Di Giulio and Adam Langevin are scheduled to compete in the USTA Pro Circuit $10,000 Irvine Futures Tournament at the Racquet Club of Irvine.
Langevin, a senior at Sage Hill School, competes in qualifying that begins Friday.
Di Giulio, who is going into his senior year at UCLA, will compete in the main draw beginning Tuesday. Other notable players in the main draw include former UCLA tennis standouts Clay Thompson and Marcos Giron.
The tournament is the first of back-to-back Futures events in Orange County. Los Caballeros Racquet and Sports Club of Fountain Valley will play host to another $10,000 event, which begins with qualifying on Sept. 23. The Fountain Valley event was formerly the Costa Mesa Classic, which was held for 18 years at the Costa Mesa Tennis Center.
Hank Lloyd remains the tournament director at Los Cab, despite the venue change.
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Matt Szabo covers boys’ water polo and girls’ tennis in the fall.
Twitter: @mjszabo
