Pastikova passes test

NEWPORT BEACH — The warmups prior to the Newport Beach Breakers’ match against the Kansas City Explorers on Monday were complete and it was time to play tennis.

But a loud, squealing distortion sound coming out of the speakers wasn’t helping things. Eyes turned to the audio guy, who at first was unable to stop the noise.

Finally, the problem was solved and the Breakers’ Michaela Pastikova could serve.

Pastikova did a lot of that Monday, helping Newport Beach win three of its sets in a crucial 23-19 overtime victory over Kansas City before 1,680 at Breakers Stadium.

In a match which featured a pre-match tennis clinic by Hall of Famer Tracy Austin, Pastikova, making her second start of the year in women’s singles so teammate Lauren Albanese could rest her taped-up right ankle, beat Kansas City’s Jarmila Gajdosova, 5-3.

“I thought I could play singles tonight because Lauren has the problem with her ankle,” Pastikova said. “I was prepared and I’m happy … [Gajdosova] is a really good player. I know her pretty good, because she’s from Slovak Republic and I’m from the Czech Republic.”

Pastikova also teamed with Albanese for a 5-3 win over Gajdosova and Corina Morariu in women’s doubles, and then teamed with Rick Leach for a mixed doubles win by the same 5-3 score.

“I’m really happy we won the whole match tonight and that I could make three wins,” Pastikova said. “It was my second singles match that I played, but the first one was really bad; I didn’t feel comfortable. Here, I was really comfortable.”

Those three sets helped Newport Beach (3-5) to a 15-9 lead that the Breakers wouldn’t relinquish, sending the Explorers (6-2) to their second consecutive loss.

Kansas City opened the season with six straight wins.

“Michaela came up big tonight,” Breakers Coach Trevor Kronemann said. “She got us a six-game lead; she was plus-six tonight. She had a good practice this morning. We told her ‘You have to stay positive and things will happen,’ and she was solid all the way through.”

The Breakers also keep their dim playoff hopes alive, pulling within three games of Kansas City for the second spot in World Team Tennis’ Western Conference. The top two teams in each conference make the playoffs.

Newport Beach’s Ramon Delgado, a night after nearly pulling off a huge comeback against St. Louis, rallied on a smaller scale in singles against Dusan Vemic. Delgado, who is second in WTT men’s singles in terms of games-won percentage, was down 4-2 in a tiebreaker.

But Delgado won three straight points to take the tiebreaker and the set, finishing it off on a service winner.

He and Leach then lost in men’s doubles, 5-2, in the last set of the night to Vemic and David MacPherson, forcing overtime. But after Kansas City won the first game of the overtime, pulling within 22-19, Delgado held serve on a 3-3 game point to win the match.

The Explorers bench insisted that their return of Delgado’s serve at 3-3 was in on the baseline, but they had used up all their challenges and the original call stood, ending the match.

The Breakers now head on the road, playing at the New York Buzz on Wednesday, at Philadelphia on Thursday and at Sacramento on Saturday.

They return home Sunday night to play the Philadelphia Freedoms and four-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams.

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or at matthew.szabo@latimes.com.