Hearts set on a cure

BRYCE ALDERTON

Some tennis enthusiasts strolled into Newport Beach Tennis Club

Friday night dressed in tuxedo jackets, shorts and athletic shoes.

Others arrived in fashions ranging from jeans and T-shirts to evening

gowns and sparkling dresses.

Whatever the wardrobe choice, there was no disputing the reason

more than 100 supporters of the Queen of Hearts Foundation mingled

among one another for the player party preceding today’s opening

rounds of the organization’s second annual tennis tournament.

They came to support a worthy cause -- fighting ovarian cancer.

First serves in the tournament, held at Newport Beach Tennis Club,

along with six other venues including local sites such as Palisades

and Mesa Verde tennis clubs in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa,

respectively, begin at 8 a.m. today in men’s, women’s and mixed

doubles divisions spanning experience levels. There are no singles.

There will be winners and prizes once final handshakes take place

Sunday, Oct. 10, but the real onus is raising money for research into

ovarian cancer.

“I don’t play in a lot of tournaments, but if it’s for a good

cause, I will play more,” said Colette Angle, a Newport Beach Tennis

Club member competing in mixed and women’s doubles divisions. “I’m

not in it to win a trophy.”

Angle had a hysterectomy two years ago to prevent the spread of

pre-cancerous cells.

“I thought I had ovarian cancer,” Angle said.

Queen of Hearts is a nonprofit organization that started in 2000,

when founding members Lori Hunter, Cathy Greinke and Kim Beaudette

lost their mother, Ann Dobbie, to cancer, just five months after

diagnosis.

The organization has raised more than $450,000 since its

inception, including $20,000 from the first tournament last fall.

Money raised goes to UC Irvine’s Chao Family Comprehensive Center

with hopes of developing an early-detection test.

Players pay $70 for the first entry and $30 for each succeeding

entry into the tournament.

About 500 players signed up for this year’s tournament, which

translates into about 230 teams, tournament chairman Dennis Claus

said. Claus is an avid tennis player who was instrumental in gaining

support for a tournament.

Louisa Arnold, author of the best-selling book “Tennis Ticklers,”

is an ovarian cancer survivor and lifetime tennis player.

The American Cancer Society estimates 25,580 new cases of ovarian

cancer will arise this year while 16,090 are expected to die from the

disease. Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of death among

cancer in women.

The National Ovarian Cancer Coalition’s web site estimates that

70% of women with the common epithelial ovarian cancer aren’t

diagnosed until the disease has reached the advanced stage --

spreading to the abdomen or beyond.

Symptoms include, indigestion, nausea, unexplained weight loss or

weight gain, a constant feeling of fullness, fatigue, pelvic and/or

abdominal pain, along with postmenopausal or abdominal bleeding.

Here’s hoping those racing along the baselines hitting forehands

and backhands beginning today will keep in mind why they are playing

the next few weeks.

My guess is they will.

*

Costa Mesa High’s eight tennis courts are well on their way to

resurfacing after the United States Tennis Association awarded grants

to 89 public tennis facilities nationwide.

The USTA recently provided $243,690 in grants through its

Adopt-A-Court program, which includes 19 sites in California, four in

Southern California.

The program aims to increase interest in tennis and make it

accessible to as many players as possible.

Costa Mesa boys and girls tennis coach Sean Lance believes the

resurfaced courts will draw more interested players while expanding

opportunities to learn the game.

Lance, who took over Mesa’s girls team last fall, has already

noticed a rise in the number of players serving up games on Mesa’s

courts, both for organized and recreational use.

“This year’s tennis enrollment has tripled and we expect to have a

minimum of 90 or more student-athletes enrolled every year,” Lance

said.

Other Southern California tennis facilities awarded grant money

include Coast Union High in Cambria, Municipal Park in Huntington

Park and Orcutt Junior High.