After rolling through the regular season with an undefeated record, the Valley City Hi-Liners journeyed to Fargo for the EDC Championships, looking to defend their regular-season crown. With postseason play consisting of a 3-2 format instead of the usual 6-3, the Hi-Liners’ depth would be tested like never before.
The Hi-Liners’ first-round matchup against West Fargo was a mere warm-up for the regular-season EDC champs. They dispatched the Packers with a 5-0 sweep, putting together a clinical performance. The Hi-Liners only dropped nine games in their five matches, with Skye Nielson and Alyssa Thomsen’s 6-3, 6-3 win over Paige Knuittlia and Hannah Moseng in the #2 doubles matchup being the closest match. Defending state doubles champions Abby Martineck and Breck Sufficool, along with Kailee Nielson, Georgia Zaun, and Ella Olson, all picked up wins as well.
Last season, the Hi-Liners’ journey stalled in the EDC semi-finals, with Valley City having to win in the back draw to qualify for state. If the Hi-Liners wanted to get the automatic qualifying birth, they needed to defeat the Red River Roughriders in the semi-finals.
With Valley City carrying their momentum from their opening, they jumped all over Red River as Skye Neilson never let Red River’s Kalli Block get into the match, rolling to a straight sets win (6-2, 6-0). Kailee Neilson would get a rematch against Addy Lommen after the two combined for a marathon three-set thriller in the regular season, which Neilson won. This match would be expedited to two sets as Neilson attacked the net to roll to a straight-sets win (6-1, 6-3). The new pairing of Thomsen and Sufficool came back to win the last three games in the second set to win the match (6-1, 7-5).
With the win, the Hi-Liners secured a spot in the state tournament and the EDC Championship against the West Fargo Sheyenne Mustangs, whom they beat in the regular season to secure the number one seed. After a lengthy rain delay, the championship match was moved indoors.
Unsurprisingly, the doubles teams would anchor the Hi-Liners to an early 2-0 lead. Valley City was able to have all four of their seniors available for doubles competition as the teams of Breck Sufficool and Alyssa Thomsen, along with Abby Martineck and Ella Olson, established control of their respective matches early on and cruised to a pair of commanding wins. Sheyenne countered with two of the top singles players in the state to even the game up as Kailee Neilson and Georgia Zaun could not pick up that elusive championship-clinching win.
With the score tied at 2-2, the EDC Championship would come down to the final match between Hi-Liner eighth grader Skye Neilson and Sheyenne sophomore Shireen Durrani, who had only lost once all season. In their regular season matchup, the Hi-Liners outlasted the Mustangs 6-3, despite Durrani rolling to an impressive straight sets win over Abby Martineck (6-0, 6-2).
Despite the intimidating record, Neilson was not fazed by her opponent as she breezed through the first set, winning 6-0, leaving her and the Hi-Liners one set away from the championship. While Durrani would manage to put up more resistance in the second set, nothing could stop Valley City’s exceptional eighth grader. Up 5-3 and sitting on match point, Neilson attacked the net one final time and delivered an overhead smash out of the reach of Durrani to seal the championship as her teammates stormed the court.
Head Coach Matt Neilson describes the phenomenal effort he got out of his star eighth grader: “Skye played the match of her life. She had great footwork and attacked approach shots to put away overheads from the service line. She ran balls down to keep points alive. She frustrated her opponent as Durrani couldn’t hit over, around, or through her.”
Up next for the Hi-Liners is the individuals tournament today and tomorrow in Fargo, with a full bracket being available here.