Minot High eighth grader Sydney Brown returns a shot from Bismarck Legacy’s Emmalee Ericksmoen during her match at Hammond Park on Tuesday, April 21. Brown won the match 6-2, 6-2. Mike Kraft/MDN

On the tennis court, Ava Thuner has the footwork, balance, grace and composure one would compare to that of a figure skater.

Fittingly, the Minot High junior is a figure skater, and a highly decorated one for that matter.

When she’s not on the court in the spring serving as the No. 2 singles player for the Majettes, Thuner is lacing up the ice skates and competing in individual competitions in conjunction with the Magic City Figure Skating Club. Whether it’s on the ice wearing figure skates or on the court in a pair of tennis shoes, success is a common theme.

Thuner is a quadruple gold medalist as a figure skater and an all-state and all-WDA tennis player, finishing fourth at the state tournament and third at WDA last season as a sophomore. This season, she is a perfect 6-0 in singles play following her 6-1, 6-1 victory at No. 2 singles on Tuesday, April 21, helping Minot High secure a 6-1 victory over Bismarck Legacy in a non-conference contest at Hammond Park. Thuner defeated Danica Grossman to earn her team-leading sixth singles win this season.

“Definitely balance,” Thuner said. “That’s the key thing. Keeping a steady mind. Figure skating is an individual sport as well, so it’s helped me create a good mental game and helped me keep my head straight during matches. I would say that what helps me succeed in most of my matches is not getting over my head and keeping some steady play and letting my opponent make the mistakes.”

Thuner has been dominant all season, never conceding more than two games in a set. She’s won 72 of her 79 games played and has two victories in which she didn’t drop a game during the match.

“Ava doesn’t play a lot in the offseason,” Minot High coach Scott DeLorme said. “She’s a big figure skater, but that’s leg strength. That’s muscle and she just gets stronger each year, which adds a couple miles per hour to the serve, a couple miles per hour to the ground stroke and all the sudden adds a new dimension that people haven’t seen. You add the angles and a little bit of pace and that’s probably what we’re going to see over the year.”

While being fully content as the No. 2 singles player behind Kyllie Fettig – the WDA runner-up and third-place finisher at state – Thuner still feels a bit of pressure that comes from the expectations set from last year’s performance.

“There is a little bit less pressure on me, but there’s still an expectation set for me as well,” Thuner said. “I still have a good amount of pressure on me. The top four at state, there were no seniors, so it’s going to be a battle again this year at the state tournament as well as WDA, but I have confidence in myself and everyone on my team.”

The Majettes (6-0) swept the four individual matches in the 4-3 format, with Fettig remaining unblemished on the year with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Calista Hosek for her fifth victory. Sydney Brown picked up her third singles victory at No. 4, besting Emmalee Eriksmoen, 6-2, 6-2. With Grace Olson pairing with Ella Sherven at No. 1 doubles, McKenna Odahlen took her spot at No. 3 singles. The sophomore emerged victorious after a marathon match with Zoe Flemmer, 7-5, 7-6 (5).

Minot High’s depth was on full display, as its singles victories came from a senior, junior, sophomore and eighth grader. That depth and talent across the Majettes roster is why Thuner is at No. 2 singles, where she would be the top singles player on most teams across both the WDA and EDC.

“She’s an all-state player for a reason and a top-five player in the state,” DeLorme said. “When she gets on the court, you’re not going to think she’s going to blow you off the court. It’s not her style. She carves you up with angles and depth and different pace. She’s just incredibly smart. She understands angles. She understands ball placement and more importantly where the ball is going to go off your racket. She’s a very good tennis player. To play No. 2 singles on our team, we feel like we have two lockdowns at No. 1 and No. 2 and we have Grace Olson at No. 3. We think we have three of the top five or six singles players in the state and when you can throw that out there in any lineup, it really opens up possibilities.”

With singles play being of little concern for the Majettes, practice leading up to Tuesday’s match focused heavily on doubles play. DeLorme said it’s still a work in progress, but the Majettes won two of their three doubles matches. Olson and Ella Sherven posted a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Joya Martian and Kadence Syverson at No. 1 doubles. Alivia Sherven and Kyndal McNichols rallied a pair of times to seal a 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 win against Ava Flemmer and Anna Martian.

“We’ve been working on doubles,” DeLorme said. “We’ve been doing a lot of doubles-specific stuff. No. 1 doubles was very good. A lot of things we were working on, we saw right away. No. 2 doubles, we’ve seen it in glimpses. We haven’t seen it for a full match. It seems to be three games on, two games off, three games on. It’s small steps. It’s one of those situations where you kind of expect. You’d love to see it kick in and be 100 percent right away, but we’ll take baby steps right now and continue to work on it in practice this week.”

Alivia Sherven and McNichols teamed up for the second time this season having won their previous outing. They found themselves in trouble in the opening set, falling behind 5-2. However, they put together a late run and won the final five games to take the opening set.

“We were having a tough time at first and we just had to get the jitters out,” McNichols said. “We were nervous. We both knew that, so we just had to calm each other down and that really helped. We’ve known each other for years now and it’s nice to have that person to calm you down. Making that huge comeback was great for us. It got us going. We were ready and that second set kind of pushed us back a little, but we came back even better.”

The duo couldn’t muster up the same magic in the second set, as Flemmer and Martian forced a deciding third set. Alivia Sherven and McNichols were in control from the start and cruised in the third set.

“It was all mental,” Alivia Sherven said. “As partners, we kept each other going and kept each other up the whole time. We were encouraging each other and it helped us push through and get the win.”

Legacy’s lone win came at No. 3 doubles as Macy Braun and Clare Warford defeated Bristol Bolton and Chelsea Zieska in a hard-fought 7-6 (5), 7-5 contest.

Minot High returns to conference play when it travels to play at Mandan on Thursday, April 23, at 4 p.m.