Minot North’s Addy Clark returns a shot during her singles match against Mandan’s Eva Benz on Tuesday, April 28, at Hammond Park. Mike Kraft/MDN

It was a bit of good news and bad news for the Minot North girls tennis team in its match against Mandan.

The good news was the Sentinels were back at full strength for the first time in nearly two weeks. The unfortunate news was that it didn’t translate to a third consecutive win, as Minot North fell just short in a 5-4 defeat at the hands of the Braves on Tuesday, April 28, at Hammond Park.

The two teams split its six singles matches, with three needing a decisive third set, before Mandan took two of the three doubles matches to secure the conference victory. The loss snapped Minot North’s first multi-match winning streak in program history.

“Obviously a win is always nice, but 4-5 is the closest we can get to a win,” Minot North coach Gwen Erickson said. “Sometimes those close losses are harder than those blowouts, but still really happy with the way we went out, just telling the girls thinking about where we were at last year and the progress that we see and just being able to get better and knowing going into practice we have things to work on.”

The Sentinels lost to Mandan 7-2 last season.

Minot North (3-4 overall, 2-3 WDA) picked up wins at No. 3, No. 5 and No. 6 singles, as well as in No. 3 doubles. Julia Stoner and Alyviah Kopp won both their singles matches and paired up to deliver the Sentinels their lone doubles victory.

Stoner, Kopp and Braxtyn Bennett all faced a bit of adversity they had to overcome in order to come away victorious in their respective singles matches. Stoner dropped her first three games in the opener set against Mandan’s Tayla Inveld before winning 12 of the final 13 games for a 6-3, 6-1 win. Stoner leads the team with five singles victories this season.

Bennett fell behind 5-2 in the opening set against Hailey Inveld before rallying to force a tiebreaker, which she won 7-4.

“With me, I’m very good at getting out of that mindset and kind of restarting,” Bennett said. “In my head, it’s 0-0 and I just have to build up from there. I definitely had to compete. I got down a few times, but I had enough stamina and enough adrenaline to push me through and get that lead.”

Bennett again forced a tiebreaker in the second set. Looking to end the match in straight sets, Bennett won the first four points of the tiebreaker and three of the final four for a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (1) victory.

“Toward the end, my first serves started getting very consistent, which helped me get a lot of big points,” Bennett said.

Kopp was the only Sentinel to win one of the match’s three-set contests. She dropped the first set to Sadie Cornell before battling back to secure a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win. Cornell made a late run in the third set, winning two games in a row to close to within 5-4. Kopp finished it off in the next game for her fourth singles win of the season.

“My opponent was really good at moving me around, so I had to stay on my feet and make sure I could get to as many of those balls as I could,” Kopp said. “The first set was pretty good. The second set was kind of a mental battle for me, but I was just trying to forget about the points that I messed up and trying to look forward really helps.”

Erickson said that the ability to bounce back and stay in matches is a testament to the growth of the team.

“That is a huge improvement from our team from last year and just knowing we can go out and restart after every single point,” Erickson said. “That confidence and that type of play is really going to help us down the road because there are going to be close matches and one of these days they are going to go our way.”

Mandan (5-2, 3-1) won the other two matches that required a third set. Eva Benz defeated Addy Clark at No. 1 singles, 7-5, 2-6, 6-1, and Annika Peterson topped Emersyn Kopp, 5-7, 6-2, 6-0. Brynn Feist gave the Braves their third singles victory, winning in straight sets over Kate Weishaar, 6-3, 6-4.

Weishaar and Emersyn Kopp have been out of the lineout recently due to illness. Weishaar missed the last match against Bismarck St. Mary’s, and Emersyn Kopp was sidelined against both St. Mary”s and Williston before returning to the court on Tuesday.

“They are doing a really good job,” Erickson said. “Emersyn has been really sick for a week now, so her body is not yet completely recovered and tennis is a long sport. Our matches are taking more than an hour sometimes, so that healthiness aspect is key for us, but they have four years of experience now and they know exactly what their roles are on this team and I know they are always going to go out there and give it their all no matter what.”

The Braves clinched the victory with wins at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles. Benz and Hailey Intveld topped Clark and Weishaar, 6-2, 6-3, and Tayla Intveld and Peterson defeated Bennett and Emersyn Kop, 6-1, 6-3. Stoner and Alyviah Kopp delivered a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Feist and Cornell.

Minot North travels to play Bismarck Legacy on Thursday, April 30, for a 2 p.m. match.