Kyllie Fettig captured her first WDA singles title, defeating Williston’s Avy Ator, 6-3, 6-3, in the championship match of the WDA Individual Tournament on Saturday, May 23, at Hammond Park Mike Kraft/MDN

It was a clean sweep for the Minot High girls tennis team at the West Region Tournament over the Memorial Day Weekend.

Two days after winning their fifth straight WDA dual title and 16th overall, the Majettes took home the individual titles in both the singles and doubles competition on the final day of the WDA Individual Tournament on Saturday, May 23, at Hammond Park.

Kyllie Fettig won her first WDA singles title with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over No. 2 seed Avy Ator of Williston in what was her most competitive match of the tournament. Fettig advanced to the championship match earlier in the day with a 6-3, 6-2 win against Jenny Pitcher of Bismarck Century.

“Kyllie’s just had a heck of a year,” Minot High coach Scott DeLorme said. “She’s rolled through the West Region to a certain extent. She’s definitely been challenged and Avy Ator is an incredible player who is only getting better. She’s only a junior. She’s probably going to be the top seed next year. But Kyllie has devoted herself for the last three years with the goal to win a West Region singles title. She was close last year and to see the hard work and the hours and the commitment she’s put into the program and into her own game finally pay off with a WDA title is definitely cool for her and something special.”

Ator advanced to the title match after besting former WDA singles champion Shayna Klitzke of Dickinson, 6-1, 6-2. Klitzke would go on to defeat Pitcher, 6-3, 6-2, in the third place match.

Klitzke ended Fettig’s run at a conference individual title in last year’s WDA title match, but Fettig broke through this year and became a WDA champion playing her final high school match at Hammond Park after five years.

“From last year to this year, it was kind of a different experience with it being in Minot,” Fettig said. “After last year, I just knew that I needed to keep working and it was cool to see that all come together this year. “It definitely feels really good. It was a relief once the match was over. It was definitely a tough match. She really showed up to play and I had to dig deep, but it was a lot of fun.”

Kyllie’s run through the tournament was about as difficult as it could have been, as she wasn’t the beneficiary of any early-round upsets. She had to defeat the No. 8, No. 5 and No. 2 ranked players along the way.

“As a competitor, when you can go win a title and you beat the best of the best, that definitely adds to it,” DeLorme said. “Unfortunately, there’s often situations where somebody gets to a championship match and they got the benefit of the draw somewhere. Kyllie didn’t get that. She had to go through two very good players in Jenny Pitcher and Avy Ator. To do that against two girls who are very capable of going to the state tournament next weekend and becoming all-staters, it has to make it more special to her.”

As Fettig was battling for her singles title, so were her teammates Grace Olson and Ava Thuner in the doubles competition. In a back-and-forth match, Olson and Thuner came away with a 7-5, 7-6 (5) victory over Century’s Ava Dunlop and Sophia Edland for the doubles crown. For Olson, she is now a back-to-back WDA champion after winning the title with her sister Lila Olson last year against Mandan’s Lauren Katzung and Lily Thomsen, 6-4, 6-4.

“It was very similar in the way that it was very competitive,” Olson said. “Me and Ava, it went back and forth between us and Century with the score. It was different from who we saw last year when we played Mandan.”

For Thuner, this served as her first doubles title. She played in the singles tournament last year, placing third. She was fourth at the state tournament.

“Ava, three months ago if you had told her she was going to be a WDA doubles champion, she would have laughed at all of us because she’s always played singles,” DeLorme said. “But as the season went along and her and Grace just got closer as teammates and as friends, the idea of them playing together kind of started to make sense and they devoted themselves to becoming a doubles team.”

Olson said it didn’t take long to develop chemistry with Thuner after playing last season with her sister.

“After we played together for the first one or two times, we really figured out each other’s styles, hers defensively and mine offensively,” Olson said. “It was pretty quick. We really just enjoy being around each other and being on the doubles court, so it wasn’t too hard to find that doubles chemistry between us.”

The doubles partners opened the day with a victory in the semifinals over Jamestown’s Anna Hronova and Elise Roberts, 6-2, 6-0. Prior to the championship match, Olson and Thuner had dropped just three total games.

The Majettes qualified two doubles teams with Ella Sherven and McKenna Odahlen taking fifth. They began the day with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Minot North’s Julia Stoner and Braxtyn Bennett and secured fifth place with a 0-6, 6-3, 10-8 win against Dickinson’s Morgan Daley and Erin Daley.

“Our team has such great depth and me, Kyllie and Ava wouldn’t be as good as we are without our younger teammates who work so hard,” Olson said.

Fettig praised the coaching staff for the current run the Majettes have been on.

“It all comes back to the coaching,” Fettig said. “Our coaches are phenomenal and we wouldn’t be anywhere without them.”

Minot North qualified a state representative in both singles and doubles as well. Addy Clark placed eighth to secure her spot in the field for the second consecutive season. She bested Minot High’s Alivia Sherven in a state qualifier, 6-3, 3-6, 14-12.

Stoner and Bennett also finished eighth in the doubles competition to advance to state. They got by Williston’s Maci Heller and Dani Tinklenberg, 6-3, 6-3, to secure their spot and become the first doubles team in program history to make it to state. They won three matches after dropping into the consolation bracket. After a hard-fought 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 victory over Dickinson’s Ashley Freeman and Natalie Delange in their first consolation match, they won in straight sets over Bismarck High’s Mataya Thompson and Madeline Chouinard, 6-2, 6-2.

The state tournament begins with the dual tournament on Thursday, May 28, at Grand Forks Choice Health & Fitness. The two-day singles and doubles tournaments begin on Friday, May 29.