Breakers win home opener

Orange County Breakers coach Rick Leach said he didn’t know how Nicole Gibbs got to the shot.

Gibbs herself said it felt a bit lucky.

But the Breakers would take it on set point, for sure.

Gibbs did more than just get to Francesca Schiavone’s drop shot at 4-4 in the women’s singles tiebreaker Monday night. Once she got to the net, she whipped a cross-court winner to win the set.

Gibbs, last year’s World Team Tennis Female MVP for the Breakers, made her only appearance of the 2017 season count. It was a highlight of a successful night for Orange County, which defeated Springfield, 23-15, in its home opener at Palisades Tennis Club.

Gibbs was able to fill in for the Breakers (1-1), who bounced back from Sunday night’s 17-14 loss at defending league champion San Diego. With Breakers team member Yanina Wickmayer getting married on Sunday, Maria Sharapova filled in for Orange County on Sunday night, and Gibbs on Monday. Leach said Wickmayer will rejoin the team on Wednesday, when the Breakers play at Washington.

Sharapova makes her lone home appearance of the season for Orange County on July 24. As for Monday night, Leach was happy to get the win over the Lasers (1-1) under his belt.

“Springfield has a really good team,” Leach said. “I didn’t know how it was going to happen with two new players, Stevie [Johnson] coming in and Nicole coming in, but they both did really well. It was fun.”

Johnson, the Orange County native who starred at Orange High and USC, is playing in the Breakers’ first four home matches. He closed out Monday night’s match with a 5-2 win over Springfield’s Benjamin Becker. Johnson, ranked No. 31 in the world, also played in the opening set of the night. In men’s doubles, he and Ken Skupski picked up a 5-2 victory against Becker and Jean-Julien Rojer.

Skupski, coming off men’s doubles and mixed doubles quarterfinal appearances at Wimbledon, also was successful in mixed doubles. He and Andreja Klepac beat Rojer and Abigail Spears, 5-2.

Springfield’s only set win of the night came in women’s doubles, where Spears and Schiavone edged Gibbs and Klepac, 5-3.

It was part of a Lasers run that narrowed Orange County’s lead, which stretched to 17-8 at one point, to just 18-15. But Johnson won the last five games against Becker to close out the victory.

“Stevie’s such a classy guy, and he’s playing so well now, with so much confidence,” Leach said. “He’s just a team player … I think we have a team that can beat any team in the league. We have a really competitive team.”

Gibbs, who citied scheduling conflicts for the reason why she’s playing just one match for Orange County this season, definitely had fun in that lone appearance for the Breakers.

“It’s always awesome just to get to share the court with such a champion,” Gibbs said of playing against Schiavone, the 2010 French Open champion. “She’s obviously done so much in her career, so just to get out here and play at that level was really fun. I think we put on an entertaining set.”

Orange County travels to Washington on Wednesday and New York on Thursday, returning home to Palisades for a match against New York on Saturday night at 7:05.

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo