Rookie Vanc delivers in clutch, giving Lasers win in season-opening match. By Joe Cress JCRESS@NEWS-LEADER.COM

Down three games entering the final event of Thursday night’s season-opening match, Springfield Lasers coach Trevor Kronemann did some quick math in his head, looking for a winning scenario.

“I told Andreea (Vanc) that if she could win 5-1; we’d win the match,” Kronemann said. “She looked at me like I was crazy.”

Kronemann’s math added up, as Vanc promptly went out and beat Anastassia Rodionova – her doubles partner on the WTA Tour – by that exact 5-1 score, giving the Lasers a come-from-behind 21-20 victory over the Newport Beach Breakers before 1,037 at Cooper Tennis Complex.

The Lasers opened their 11^th season of World TeamTennis with a victory, despite losing three of the five sets. Newport Beach, last year’s league runner-up, dropped 0-4 all time at Cooper.

Springfield trailed nearly the entire match, and was down 19-16 after Rodionova and Tina Krizan defeated Vanc and Kaysie Smashey 5-4 (5-3 tiebreaker) in women’s doubles.

Vanc, a 32-year-old tour veteran from Romania playing her first WTT season, admitted she was surprised when Kronemann told her she could still win the match for the Lasers.

“I couldn’t believe it, really,” said Vanc, who flew into Springfield from Wimbledon on Wednesday evening. “I just said, ‘Lets go for it.’”

Vanc won the first game against Rodionova on serve, then broke her partner to go up 2-0. Leading 3-1 and with Rodionova struggling with her serve, Vanc won a crucial three-all point to go up 4-1 and tie the match at 20-all.

With her teammates cheering her on from the side and the Cooper crowd growing louder by the point, she won the final three points of the match, ending it on a forehand winner in the corner.

She said it was the first time she had played Rodionova in singles since the two became doubles partners. Her strategy, she said, was to make Rodionova his as many balls as possible, and keep her moving on the court.

“If I could make her hit two or three shots every time, that was good,” she said. “And if I had a spot to go for (a winner), I would.”

Springfield actually won both singles matches, with Nick Monroe beating Newport Beach’s Ramon Delgado 5-4 (5-0 tiebreaker). Monroe, an energetic 24-year-old from Olathe, Kan., broke Delgado with a vicious two-hand backhand return to take a 4-3 lead. Delgado responded by breaking serve to force the tiebreaker, but Monroe quickly seized momentum, and won all five points.

Monroe and Alex Vlaski lost 5-3 to Delgado and Jeff Tarango in doubles to open the match, as Monroe said it took him a little time to get used to his new surroundings.

“Alex and I were a little tight in doubles, being our first year in (WTT) and everything,” he said. “But I relaxed in my second match (singles), and come Saturday night (against Houston), I’ll be even better.”

Monroe and Vlaski quickly proved to be crowd favorites, playing to the Cooper contingent time and again, and leaping high into the air for a powerful chest-bump after a key point.

“I know we’re going to get good effort from (Monroe and Vlaski) every night,” Kronemann said of his rookies. “I wanted us to find two guys with a lot of enthusiasm and who really like the team concept.”

The Lasers also got solid play from Smashey, a team member last year who is filling in for the ill Victoria Azarenka. Smashey showed dazzling net play at times, but came up short with Vlaski in mixed doubles and Vanc in women’s doubles, both set in tiebreakers.

The Lasers host the Houston Wranglers at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at Cooper. Azarenka is expected to make her debut in that match.