Grace Olson (top left), Kyllie Fettig (top right), Ella Sherven (bottom left) and Alivia Sherven (bottom right) all of Our Redeemer’s Christian School have had a significant impact on the Minot High girls tennis team throughout their careers. Mike Kraft/MDN and Minot High Tennis

The uniforms read “Minot High” across the chest, decorated in the maroon and gold that symbolizes the school colors, but the Minot High girls tennis team’s success this season and in years prior have a heavy influence from the blue and white of Our Redeemer’s Christian School.

While some co-ops across the state have as few as one representative, Minot High’s varsity roster boasts four athletes from the private Lutheran school as well as three others in its middle school program. Seniors Kyllie Fettig and Grace Olson, sophomore Ella Sherven and eighth grader Alivia Sherven have all played pivotal roles this season, as the Majettes are undefeated heading into the state dual tournament on Thursday, May 28, against West Fargo Sheyenne in Grand Forks. Minot High is seeking its ninth dual title.

“We have a very good relationship with Our Redeemer’s,” Minot High coach Scott DeLorme said. “They are supportive. They have obviously produced some really good athletes for us and the Minot High girls have included them. They have always been a part of our team, a part of Minot High tennis for as long as we go back and no one says ‘You’re from Our Redeemer’s, you’re from Minot High.’ When we get together, everything is Minot High and everyone has bought into it.”

Minot High enrolls between 950 and 1,000 students in grades 9-12 alone, while Our Redeemer’s entire student body from pre-K to 12th grade is between 260-330. Being able to represent a small school on the biggest of stages gives the Our Redeemer’s athletes an added sense of pride.

“It definitely means a lot and we’re kind of a little family, but to be able to come together with the Minot High girls, it just makes for such a cool dynamic,” Fettig said.

Fettig and Olson have known each other since preschool and have played together on the Minot High tennis team for five years. They will leave the program as the two winningest players in the girls program. Both seniors entered this year in the top 10 in all-time wins and ascended to the top of the list late in the season.

Olson overtook Raquel Egge and Eden Olson – her cousin – with her 158th career victory during a dual match against Bismarck Legacy on May 14 to become the program’s all-time wins leader. She currently sits at 166 wins. Olson is 36-1 overall this season, going a perfect 16-0 in singles – primarily in the No. 3 position. She won her second consecutive WDA doubles crown, partnering alongside Ava Thuner.

Fettig is second on the list, currently sitting with 161 career victories, and is also a WDA champion. A year after finishing runner-up, Fettig claimed her first WDA singles title, defeating Williston’s Avy Ator, 6-3, 6-3. She is 35-2 this season, with her only two losses coming against defending state champion Sarea Gu of West Fargo Sheyenne.

“It makes it a lot easier knowing someone personally,” Olson said about having teammates from the same school. “Me and Kyllie have been classmates since preschool and we’ve had class sizes of 14 to 20, so you really get to know your classmates like brothers and sisters. It’s made it easier going into a co-op sport knowing someone and having the same drive.”

The Olson name is synonymous with Minot High tennis. On the girls side, Grace, Lila, and Eden Olson have 453 combined wins and are all state champions, as well as all-WDA and all-state selections. Eden won two state doubles titles, while Grace won two WDA doubles titles and Lila won one WDA doubles title.

“We’ve been fortunate,” DeLorme said. “The Minot Public School co-op is based off addresses and we’ve been very fortunate to be the benefit of girls who attend Our Redeemer’s, but luckily live on the south end of Minot for our sake. It’s worked that way now for a number of years. It’s been two or three families that have come through that program.”

In 2025, the Our Redeemer’s influence on the Minot High team grew by two with the addition of Ella and Alivia Sherven. As a seventh grader at the time, going into a new environment was made easier thanks to the three familiar faces she already knew.

“It really helped boost my confidence first coming onto the team last year,” Alivia Sherven said. “Knowing I have people who know me and I’m not just coming in out of the blue and just being with some of my friends from my own school and working my way through that and having them help me guide me through that has really helped a lot.”

Alivia said that while she knew Kyllie and Grace from seeing one another in the hallways between classes, she didn’t really have a strong relationship with either given the grade disparity. Through the tennis program, that relationship blossomed.

The same was true for Ella.

“Kyllie has always been one of my best friends ever since I came to Our Redeemer’s and been on the tennis team,” Ella Sherven said. “She’s been a big part of my life and a big influence on my life. Right away when I joined the team she would give me rides to practice because I didn’t have my license then. She would give me rides and we’d always have good talks and they’d always invite us over for team dinners.”

Ella recounted a few memories that highlighted the camaraderie between the co-ops. One that resonated with her was when they had a pinata in the shape of a tennis ball and everyone was taking turns swinging tennis rackets at it while blindfolded.

“We affect our team in a very positive way,” Alivia Sherven said. “We’re all pretty positive. The other Minot High girls will say that we’re a different type of Minot High team because of Our Redeemer’s and because of who we are. We’re such a nice team together and we all get along so well together and it’s so great.”

The Sherven sisters also have family history with the Minot High tennis program. Their mom – Lynelle Notbohm at the time – won 124 matches with the Majettes and was named all-conference four times and all-state in 2001.

Ella has won 75 matches in her first two years and is 36-4 this season. She was 15-3 at No. 4 singles and 21-1 in doubles. Ella played doubles during the WDA Tournament, going 3-0 in the duals. Her and McKenna Odahlen qualified for the state doubles tournament by finishing fifth at WDA.

Alivia has 67 career wins to her name to date. She was 34-4 with an 18-1 record in doubles play. Like her sister, she was 3-0 in the WDA dual tournament, partnering with both Kyndal McNichols and Sydney Brown. Alivia was 16-3 playing at No. 6 singles.

“The Sherven sisters are starting to make a name for themselves,” DeLorme said. “Their mom is a very good player in her own right for Minot High. When you look at the record books, you’ll see her name towards the top of things. People have known that family for a long time with tennis, but I think Alivia and Ella have now had enough success in their own right that people are well aware when they look at a Minot High tennis lineup and they see the name Sherven that there isn’t a slouch. We always tell them that if you play for 90 percent of the teams in the state, you’re probably a No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3 player. They are high-quality players and high-quality kids and they do a lot of good things.”

Alivia and Ella have been playing tennis since they were young, but the last two years with Minot High has been their first experience as teammates. While they said it can feel strange at times being on the same team, being part of the Minot High program has brought them closer together. Having familiar faces with Olson and Fettig already on the team helped the Sherven sisters to feel at home right away.

‘Right away, when we started playing tennis – Alivia and I – we automatically clicked with them,” Ella Sherven said. “They are both super friendly people. We walked inside the room and they are already coming up to you and wanted to get to know you right away and are genuine about it. It’s not fake at all and that really helps our team connect and getting to know them made me like tennis a lot more.”

Although they come from different schools with drastically different enrollment numbers, that’s where the differences end. Public school or private school, the collective group is much more similar than it is different. They share similar interests outside of tennis, but they do enjoy hearing stories about what life is like at the other school.

“It’s a lot of fun hearing all the stuff about our school compared to their school and we’ll go back and forth about everything,” Alivia Sherven said. “We all have that same connection and we all know what is going on in our own school and we know what is happening at their school and it’s fun to talk about with all of them.”

With Fettig, Olson, and the Sherven sisters on the team the past two years, the Majettes are a perfect 41-0 with a state title, two WDA regular season titles and two WDA Tournament titles. While the four Our Redeemer’s athletes are the first to give credit to the 14 Minot High and two Jim Hill Middle School players that fill out the varsity roster for the team’s success, the excitement level their presence on the team has had within their school isn’t lost on them.

“Not often when you co-op with schools do you have four from your same school, so it’s really cool,” Olson said. “It brings a little more attention and excitement to it. Seeing teammates with me throughout the day in the hallways is really cool and getting excited for the match that’s coming up.”

All good things eventually come to an end, and the Our Redeemer’s foursome will be trimmed down to two at the end of the weekend with the graduation of both Olson and Fettig, leaving just the Sherven sisters. Maddie Kirkhammer, Kendall Bertsch and Selah Holter are Our Redeemer’s athletes currently in the middle school program as sixth and seventh graders, respectively and may one day add to the school’s contributions to the Minot High tennis varsity program. It’ll be difficult to say goodbye to the two seniors both for what they have meant on the court and off the court, Ella Sherven said.

“I’m just going to miss them in general,” Ella Sherven said. “They are such great girls and I love them so much. They are like sisters to me. They are just so great. They are so positive and so fun and make practices and matches 10x better because they are there. It’s going to be hard losing them.”

All four will be participating in the dual tournament, while Fettig, Olson and Ella Sherven will also take part in the individual tournament, which begins on Friday, May 29.