WEST FARGO, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The Valley City Hi-Liner Tennis wrapped up a busy weekend taking 8th at the West Fargo Sheyenne Tournament. Friday, the Hi-Liners took a non-conference match with Mandan.

Mandan: 1
VC: 4
Singles:
1. Blake Triebold (VC) defeated Coby Wolf (M) 6-1, 6-1
2. Derek Bear (VC) defeated Brady Helbling (M) 7-5, 6-1
3. Karter Hatzenbuhler (M) defeated Ethan Bear (M) 7-6(1), 6-4
Doubles:
1. Collin White/Austin Rogelstad (VC) defeated Ben Gartner/Trevor Elijah (M) 6-3, 6-4
2. Seth Zeltinger/Bennett Rogelstad (VC) defeated Keaton Pritchett/Jayden Arenz (M) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
JV
Trey Cope/Casey Kruger won three matches with scores of 6-1, 6-4, and 6-2
On Saturday, every team in the entire state converged on Fargo for the West Fargo Sheyenne Tournament. In this tournament, we had six separate flights of singles and three flights of doubles. Each flight was its own tournament at an individual site somewhere within Fargo or West Fargo. It was double elimination.
Valley City Results:
VC finished 8th place out of 17 teams scoring 6 points. Go to the Hi-Liner Tennis facebook page for pictures of the place winners.
Wins 17
Losses 16
Singles:
1. Blake Triebold went 2-2 and took 4th place.
2. Derek Bear went 2-2.
3. Kai Kringlie went 1-2
4. Max Magnuson went 1-2
5. Alex Rogelstad went 0-2
6. Ethan Bear went 3-2
Doubles:
1. Collin White/Austin Rogelstad went 1-2
2. Seth Zeltinger/Bennett Rogelstad went 3-1 and took 3rd place.
3. Trey Cope/Casey Krueger went 4-1 and took 5th place.
Thoughts:
Against Mandan, we gained some post-season experience. Blake rolled easily at #1 singles. Derek Bear played by far his best match as a Hi-Liner at #2 singles. He moved the ball around and played every point with confidence and aggression. He smacked the ball and just played loose. Excellent match. Ethan Bear at #3 singles played his first varsity match of his career. He was able to get up 4-1 in both sets by playing loose. At that point, he started pushing the ball and playing not to lose. This doesn’t work no matter what sport you are playing. This was a great experience for Ethan.

In doubles, Collin and Austin played well in their second match together. Against Mandan, they could have let a couple bad games get to them. They were up a set and 5-2 when they lost two bad games going to 5-4. They could have stayed down, but they didn’t. Collin served great at 5-4 and Austin was aggressive at the net to put the match away. Seth and Bennett came back from a set down to win the match showing our resolve and mental toughness.

At the West Fargo Invite, Blake made the semifinals at #1 singles for the first time in Hi-Liner history. He was able to play four full 2 out of 3 set matches which helps prepare us for the regional tournament. Derek had himself a tournament winning a couple matches at #2 singles as our #5 player. Alex played in his second Invite and Max played in his first varsity matches ever. Ethan went 3-2 on the day putting his career varsity record at 5-5.

Austin and Collin continued to play well. The won their first match and pushed the Minot team that took 2nd in the tournament to 6-4, 6-4. In the consolation, they lost to the 5th place team in a tiebreaker. Great job! Seth and Bennett are coming into their own as a doubles team. They fought through and won both of their first and second round matches in a third set super tiebreaker. In their third place match, they lost both games on a changeover to fall behind 5-4. They then come back to win three games in a row to secure third place.

Casey Kruger and Trey Cope had themselves an incredible two days. They won all three matches against Mandan on Friday and then went 4-1 on Saturday to take 5th place at the West Fargo Invite. In their last match, they were against a Legacy team that was more skilled. We played the first set on our heels and in no-man’s land leading to loosing in a hurry. I left their location to go watch another Hi-Liner at set break. They turned it around to win the second set 7-5 and then the match 10-7 in the super tiebreaker. Great resolve Trey and Casey!

Our team scored the most points as a team in the last 14 years in the West Fargo Invite taking 8th place out of 17 teams.
Our team is 5-1 on the season and we have won a total of 52 matches on the year. This puts us at one more team win and one more individual win than last year. Our team is practicing the right way leading to playing the right way. Great weekend! Let’s continue to improve and grow together!

We have a big work load in the next week and a half. We are at Shanley on Tuesday, home against South on Thursday, at Bismarck Century and Legacy on Friday, at Davies on the following Monday and at Grand Forks Central on Tuesday.