The Minot North girls tennis team dropped its season finale to Bismarck Century, 7-2, on Thursday, May 14, at Sertoma Courts in Bismarck, but it wasn’t all bad news for the Sentinels.

For the first time in program history, the Sentinels (7-6 overall, 4-5 WDA) avoided the WDA Tournament play-in round and instead have already earned a spot into the postseason tournament as the No. 6 seed thanks to a head-to-head tiebreaker over Bismarck High. Minot North will play No. 3 seed Dickinson in the quarterfinal round on Thursday, May 21, at Hammond Park.

Braxtyn Bennett and Alyviah Kopp delivered singles victories for the Sentinels. Bennett knocked off Kate Splonskowski, 6-4 7-5, at No. 5 singles and Kopp bested Sophia Edland, 6-3 6-0, at No. 6 singles.

Despite neither going in her favor, Emersyn Kopp played the two most competitive matches of the day. She fell to Annika Carlson, 7-5, 6-4, at No. 4 singles and she and her younger sister fell just short against Splonskowski and Brooklyn Roemmich, 6-4, 4-6, 10-6, at No. 3 doubles.

Jenny Pitcher, Kyla Jorgenson and Ava Dunlop also delivered wins in singles play for the Patriots, who will be the No. 2 seed in the WDA Tournament and will face the winner of a play-in match between Bismarck High and Williston. Century (15-2, 8-1) swept all three doubles matches.

The Sentinels had a record-breaking regular season, setting new program highs in overall wins, conference wins and achieved its highest finish in the conference standings.