Minot High’s Sydney Brown won her flight at No. 5 singles at the West Fargo Sheyenne Invite on Saturday, May 9. The Majettes won the event with 22 points, also winning the title at No. 4 singles and finishing runners-up at No. 1 singles, No. 3 singles and No. 1 doubles. Mike Kraft/MDN

Alivia Sherven and Sydney Brown couldn’t have asked for a better result from their trip to Fargo this weekend.

From a pure tennis perspective, it was perfect.

During the dual portion of the weekend on Friday, May 8, Alivia Sherven posted a pair of doubles victories against Fargo North and Fargo Davies, and Sydney Brown delivered a win at No. 3 singles against North. On Saturday, May 9, both won their respective singles flights at the West Fargo Sheyenne Invite.

“They’re both eighth graders,” Minot High coach Scott DeLorme said. “To see them step into that role, and we knew when we put out this lineup, we knew it was a strong lineup. We didn’t put out our best lineup as if we were going to plan and try and win this thing. Our goal was more to get kids involved in where they might play come tournament time and our players were on board with that. They liked that idea. To throw that lineup out and still come out with 22 team points and have two eighth graders step up and win their flights at No. 4 and No. 5 singles, there’s nothing but positives for those two and they both have incredibly bright futures.”

Sherven bested a field of 18 to capture the No. 4 singles flight. She received a first-round bye and knocked off fourth-seeded Chloe Liebersbach of Valley City, 7-5, 6-4, to advance to the quarterfinals. Sherven moved past Fargo North’s Brynne Gadberry, 6-2, 6-3, and St. Mary’s Svea Dirk, 6-2, 6-3, to play for the title. The eighth grader captured the title with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Fargo Davies’ Maya Larson.

Sherven moved to 10-1 this season in singles matches.

Brown received one of four seedings in the No. 5 singles flight in a field of 21, earning the No. 3 ranking. She outplayed that ranking, topping Grand Forks Central’s Ivy Sondrol, 6-3, 6-4, in the round of 16 and Bismarck High’s Elizabeth Schuh, 6-3, 6-4 in the quarterfinals. Brown matched up with second-seeded Eva Berg of Fargo North in a rematch of Friday’s dual match, where they played against one another at No. 3 singles. Brown won that match and won the semifinal contest as well, winning 7-5, 6-2. She took the title with a 7-5, 6-4 victory against Grand Forks Red River’s Ella Yahna.

Brown’s four singles victories on Saturday matched her season total. She is now 8-1 this season.

The Majettes had two other singles players as well as their No. 1 doubles team finish runners-up as the team finished with 22 total points to win the invite. Bismarck Century and Grand Forks Red River both finished with 16 points.

The top four seeds in No. 1 singles all advanced to the semifinals with top-seed Sarea Gu of West Fargo Sheyenne matching up with fourth-seeded Shayna Klitzke of Dickinson. Minot High’s Kyllie Fettig was the No. 2 seed and faced third-seeded Georgia Zaun of Valley City. Fettig topped Zaun, 6-3, 7-6 (1), and Gu bested Klitzke, 6-3, 6-3, to set up a rematch from last week. Gu – the defending state champion singles player – won the flight title with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Fettig.

“Sarea has proven to be the best in the state,” DeLorme said. “She’s the defending state champion singles player for a reason, but I think Kyllie is starting to see some areas where she can attack as we move forward and if she gets another opportunity to play her. She’s there. She is going to need a few breaks to go her way, but she’s got the game and there’s some areas where we feel we can attack.”

Fettig won her first two matches in straight sets over Red River’s Irene Tang and Mandan’s Eva Benz.

Odahlen earned the No. 3 seed at No. 3 singles. She didn’t drop a set on her path to the title match, opening with a 7-5, 6-4 victory against Shanley’s Kate Froslie. Odahlen moved on to the semifinals after defeating St. Mary’s Paige Haas, 6-4, 6-4. She punched her ticket to the title match with a 6-4, 6-2 win against Valley City’s Cambrie Westman before falling to Century’s Ava Dunlop, 6-3, 6-3.

Minot High’s top doubles team of Ava Thuner and Grace Olson advanced to the finals before running into the defending state doubles champion in Valley City’s Kailee Nielson and Skye Nielson, who took the title with a 6-3, 6-3 win.

Prior to the finals, Thuner and Olson won three matches. They opened with a 6-2, 6-2 win against Mandan’s Tayla Intveld and Hailey Intveld and won their quarterfinal match with Legacy, 6-4, 6-2. They advanced to the championship following their semifinal win over Jamestown’s Anna Hronova and Elise Roberts.

“They continue to play together,” DeLorme said. “It’s still their first time playing together this year. Ava hasn’t played a lot of doubles and they ran into the defending state doubles champions in the finals. There’s definitely some areas we know we can improve and lock down in the next two weeks and some areas that Valley City probably attacked us with our formations and the balls that we hit.”

Minot North didn’t have any players reach the semifinal round, but the Sentinels did have four of their six singles players record at least match victory, as did their No. 2 doubles team of Elsie Fry and Kinley Torbit, who beat West Fargo’s Evy Jacobson and Olivia Van Dam, 6-4, 7-6.

Alyviah Kopp led Minot North with a pair of victories at No. 3 singles. She topped West Fargo’s Yeeksha Tulasidhar in the first round, 6-3, 6-4, and advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-4 win over fourth-seeded Brooklyn Pickard of Sheyenne.

Addy Clark, Abigail Maerk and Grace Lee all won their opening matches. Clark defeated West Fargo’s Mariah Dennison, 6-3, 6-3, at No. 1 singles. Maerk topped Fargo South’s Keelie Ehlert, 6-3, 6-4, at No. 4 singles and Lee defeated Sheyenne’s Megan Moellenkamp, 6-4, 7-5, at No. 5 singles.

“(On Saturday), we had a really good showing at our top spots,” Minot North coach Gwen Erickson said. “Out of 21 teams, being in those top spots is great to see.”