Overcoming hip injuries to achieve a Division I tennis scholarship

High school tennis standout Ilana Rosenthal played through painful hip injuries during her junior year at Wyoming Seminary in 2023. The injuries threatened to sideline her and dash her hopes to play Division I collegiate tennis.

A 3-time state singles champion and resident of Kingston, Ilana went to see sports medicine specialist Michael Moreland, DO, at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center.

Avoiding surgery with a platelet-rich plasma injection

Dr. Moreland diagnosed Ilana with tears in her labrum, the cartilage that holds together the hip’s ball-and-socket joint. Under his care, Ilana could avoid surgery at a critical time in her young career.

“Her junior year was very important, because she would be talking to schools and trying to get scholarships. She was able to avoid a big surgery that would have sidelined her for 9 to 12 months probably,” Dr. Moreland says.

Instead, Dr. Moreland recommended treatment with platelet-rich plasma (PRP) to help heal the injury and a physical therapy regimen specially tailored to her needs as a high-level athlete. Ilana had been doing more basic physical therapy at another institution, but it wasn’t easing the pain.

Dr. Moreland said high-level athletes like Ilana need a different level of physical therapy, which Geisinger can provide. “They need more direct supervision and more advanced techniques to get back to that level of play,” he says.

A PRP injection, often used to promote healing of injured tendons, ligaments and cartilage, combined with advanced physical therapy, proved successful.

The result: Ilana landed a full-ride tennis scholarship at the University of Connecticut starting in the fall of 2025 — after running up an 85-2 high school record.

A personalized plan for treating sports injuries

Ilana is grateful for the care she received from Dr. Moreland and physical therapist Brandon Tunis.

“Because I’m a teenager, they understood I had a certain amount of time, especially because I was a junior when it happened and that’s a big recruiting year for a lot of athletes,” she says. “They took that into account and they helped me on the right path in good time. They really worked with me to make it all happen.”

After recovering from the hip injury, Ilana had another setback when she sprained her ankle on a lateral slide going for a ball on the tennis court in 2024. The sprain took her out of action for about 15 weeks. Again, she credits Dr. Moreland and Mr. Tunis for helping her recover ahead of schedule.

“Brandon got me back pretty quickly,” she says. “I did a lot of mobility, jumping and different exercises to help my brain tell me that my ankle was ready to go. It definitely helped me back on the court and gave me confidence that the ankle would hold up when I’m moving full speed and want to slide again for a shot.”

Her father, Stephen Rosenthal, agrees. “Brandon got her back 100 percent,” he says. “Geisinger has been instrumental in her recovery.”

Getting back in the game with sports medicine expertise

All athletes can expect the highest level of care from Geisinger’s sports medicine team — whether they’re elite players or not, says Dr. Moreland.

“If you are an athlete and you’re having a lot of pain and not able to return to the sport or not able to play at the level you could be otherwise, that’s what we’re here for,” he says. 

“We will tell you things that you can play through, and we will tell you things that could cause damage if you continue to play. We do everything we can possibly do to get you back.”

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