Mike Kraft/MDN Minot High’s Connor Ressler returns a shot during practice at Hammond Park on Monday, Sept. 29. Ressler was 7-0 at No. 3 singles and 5-0 between No. 2 and No. 3 doubles in seven West Region matches this season.

When a program has 25 regular season region titles, 26 regional tournament titles, three state championships, more than 650 match victories and over 200 combined all-conference, all-state and all-American players, it doesn’t rebuild. It just reloads.

Despite losing five of its top seven players from a year ago, any thought that this might be a lost season for the Magicians was quickly dispelled when they won eight or their first nine matches, which included victories over Bismarck Legacy and three teams from the East Region.

Minot finished the season 15-5 overall and 5-2 in conference play to earn the No. 3 seed in the West Region dual tournament. The Magicians play No. 6 seed Jamestown in the quarterfinal round at 10 a.m. in Mandan. Minot defeated the Blue Jays, 7-2, on Sept. 15, winning five of six singles matches and two of three doubles matches. The Magicians need two wins in their three matches on Thursday to advance to their 16th straight state tournament.

“I think the season has been a success of what we’ve done up to this point,” Minot High coach Scott DeLorme said. “We knew losing five of our top seven last year that we were going to have a new team and didn’t know what to expect. I would say to a certain extent that maybe we overachieved a little bit this season. We might be a year ahead of the placement we thought we were going to be. We were incredibly pleased with what we’ve done, how far we’ve come, but we definitely want to finish this weekend with a trip to the state tournament.”

The Magicians climbed their way up the West Region standings thanks to a mix of depth as well as talent toward the top of their lineup that could compete with the other seven teams in the conference. Minot rolled out a consistent singles lineup during conference play, and did some slight mixing and matching in doubles, but used 39 different combinations of lineups when it came to both singles and doubles play in non-conference matches and non-region counters. In region counters, the Magicians top six singles were Nolan Moore, Oliver Thompson, Connor Ressler, Henrik Evanoff, Ty Barden and Aiden Bye. Those six combined for a 33-9 record, with Ressler and Barden going 7-0 at No. 3 and No. 5, respectively.

Minot used three different pairings at No. 1, two at No. 2 and four at No. 3 doubles and went 17-4 collectively. In total, Minot won 50 of 63 games during region play matches. Its No. 2 doubles pairing of Ressler-Evanoff and Thompson-Barden were a combined 7-0. Ressler was also 3-0 combined at No. 1 doubles when paired with Moore and at No. 3 doubles with Bye and Calvin Olson. Ressler never tasted defeat at any point in region play, going a perfect 14-0 between singles and doubles play.

“I’m being more consistent,” Ressler said. “Also, my strategy. Every player is different. With every player, I think of something new to try.”

At the beginning of the season, doubles play was the biggest mystery due to the retooled roster. Most of the season was dedicated to finding the right combination of pairings that gave the Magicians the best chance to compete, and heading into the region tournament, they believe they have found the right formula.

“Our doubles have been what we were hoping for,” DeLorme said. “We’ve shown moments of playing incredible doubles, aggressiveness has been a plus. Connor Ressler and Henrik Evanoff are going to play a lot of doubles this weekend. We’re very confident in that pair. They’ve played a combination of No. 1 doubles and No. 2 doubles all year. And then we have three guys in Aiden Bye, Owen Sundahl and Calvin Olson who all bring something different to the table and will all factor in what we do at some point this weekend, whether it’s a No. 3 singles or No. 2 doubles. All three bring a different type of game to the table and I can see all three contributing in some way Thursday and possibly as a way to get us to the state tournament.”

The Magicians are the No. 3 seed in the dual tournament, having lost to both second-seeded Mandan and regular season champion Bismarck Legacy, but the gap between the three programs is miniscule. Minot dropped both contests by a 5-4 margin in matches that came down to a handful of points. Against Legacy, Kevin Kalb defeated Bye by the slimmest of margins at No. 6 singles, 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (8). The Magi’s match against Mandan featured four matches that required a third set to decide things, with the Braves coming out victorious in three of those occasions, all in singles play.

“I think we match up well,” DeLorme said. “Mandan is in our half of the draw. We probably would have matched up better with Legacy, but we were 5-4 in both of those matches. Against Legacy we had five match points which would have given us a 5-4 win. Against Mandan, we were 4-4 and up a set, so we’re confident against both teams. Both teams are incredibly skilled. Both teams are very good from a depth perspective. If we can make it to the semifinals it’s going to be all about who plays well that day, but we feel we can match up with both those teams.”

During the regular season, conference matches follow a 6-3 format, with six singles matches and three doubles matches. In those matches, it typically comes down to depth. The format changes come postseason time, moving to a 3-2, where it’s more about talent at the top. The Magicians played seven matches in the 3-2 format during the regular season, winning five.

Minot’s top three singles of Moore, Thompson and Ressler were 25-5 during the conference season and its No. 1 doubles and No. 2 doubles were 11-3. The Magicians used five combinations of doubles at those two spots.

“It changes things drastically,” DeLorme said. “It’s such a different game. There’s a lot of teams who win a lot of matches based on depth and that could be us in our own way, but we’re also fortunate to have three very good players at the top of the lineup and when you get to the 3-2 format, you need to have top players who can win matches and we do have guys we can role out in singles and doubles who we are very confident in and can go out and compete and walk away with a win more times than not. The 3-2 format probably favors the teams that are stronger at the top, but we think we’re a team who has that, but we also have some depth mixed in, which hopefully will be the deciding factor when it’s all said and done.”

Legacy’s Connor Svihovec was the top No. 1 singles player with a 7-0 record. Jared Christen of Mandan was 6-0 in WDA matches. Mandan’s Deklan Wollschlager went 4-0 at No. 2 singles. Thompson was 6-1. Ressler was the top player at No. 3 singles with an unblemished record in seven matches.

Svihovec and Brady Johnson were the top doubles team in the region with a 5-0 record. Christen was part of three doubles teams that combined for a 4-1 record. And a doubles team that Minot will see on Thursday is Jamestown’s Luke LeFevre and Braxton Burkett, who were 5-0 on the year. The pair were also 10-4 combined across No. 1 and No. 2 singles for the Blue Jays. Ressler and Evanoff were the top performers at No. 2 doubles.

“We’ll be ready,” Ressler said. “I have complete faith in our doubles teams that they can pull out two wins.”

The entirety of the dual tournament takes place on Thursday, with the top four teams advancing to the state dual tournament. The West Region individual tournament takes place over the course of the following two days, beginning on Friday, Oct. 3, and concluding Saturday, Oct. 4. The top eight singles finishers and the top eight doubles teams will qualify for the state individual tournament.

DeLorme said that he is hoping to qualify a pair of doubles teams with Moore and Thompson as well as Evanoff and Barden while also qualifying Ressler in singles.