Breakers keep it going
The Orange County Breakers retired their first jersey in team history on Saturday night at Newport Beach Tennis Club.
Former coach Trevor Kronemann, a two-time World Team Tennis MVP who guided the team for seven years through 2003, was the honoree. His jersey was retired and put on the fence at halftime of the Breakers’ match against the New York Empire.
“You think all the humbling is over, and then something like this happens,” said Kronemann, the former UC Irvine men’s tennis coach who now is the director of junior tennis for the Southern California Tennis Assn. “It’s a great honor. It’s something that you don’t think that you’re going to accomplish. You never play the game for those reasons, but it really makes you reflect on what you’ve done, where you’ve been, the relationships … and it’s a huge honor. Obviously, we’ve had some great players play here, and to be the first one [to have his jersey retired] is very humbling.”
Kronemann wasn’t the only one humbled. The Empire turned out to be the latest victim for the Breakers.
For the second straight night, Orange County won all five sets. The Breakers earned an easy 25-8 victory to improve to 4-2. The team moved into a three-way tie for first place with the Philadelphia Freedoms and the San Diego Aviators.
The Breakers play host to the Freedoms in a showdown on Sunday night.
They again started out strong on Saturday with a win in men’s doubles. Dennis Novikov and Scott Lipsky beat New York’s Daniel Nguyen and Neal Skupski, 5-3.
Women’s singles came next, and there Orange County’s Nicole Gibbs topped Christina McHale of New York, 5-1.
“We’re kind of on a roll, which is great,” Breakers Coach Rick Leach said. “You love it when everybody plays well on the team, everybody contributes, and that’s happened the last couple of nights [including Friday night’s 25-10 win over Washington]. You hand it to the men’s doubles, they get us going, and then Nicole had a great win over McHale. [McHale] was the No. 1 pick in the draft, the highest-ranked [woman], and she’s a very good player. Nicole is just playing so well right now.”
Orange County did not let up in front of a rowdier than normal Saturday night crowd, some of which was caused by Gibbs’ friends from Stanford. In men’s singles, Novikov beat Dennis Nguyen, 5-2. It was a rivalry matchup, as Novikov went to UCLA and Nguyen attended USC.
The Breakers’ Lipsky and Alla Kudryavtseva beat Skupski and Maria Irigoyen, 5-1, in mixed doubles. Then, in the final set of the night, Gibbs and Kudryavtseva got past Irigoyen and McHale, 5-1.
Orange County improved to 4-0 this season at home.
“We have great fans,” Leach said. “We’re either selling out or close to selling out every night, and they’re excited. They get behind us. We seem to be very relaxed at home.”
The season is now halfway over, and a win over Philadelphia on Sunday night would go a long way toward moving closer to a playoff berth for Orange County. The top two teams in the regular-season standings advance to the World Team Tennis finals.
Following Sunday’s match, the Breakers have their final home match of the season on Tuesday night against the Springfield Lasers.
“It’s great to see them doing well,” Kronemann said. “We deserve a championship here in Newport Beach. They’ve got a great team, and hopefully they can keep it rolling.”
