BISMARCK — Fargo Shanley shined in a battle of unbeatens Saturday afternoon at Sanford Sports Complex, while unseating the defending state champion.

The Deacons got goals from Carly Hulstein, Emma Rohrich and Annie Yablonski to earn a 3-0 victory against Mandan for the North Dakota girls soccer state championship.

Shanley completed its unbeaten season, while shutting out defending champ Mandan for the first time this spring.

“The girls were excited to play Mandan, two undefeated teams and someone had to come out as the winner,” Deacons head coach Ryan Christianson said. “Whoever worked the hardest was going to come out champions, our girls were hungry.”

The Deacons (13-0-4) won their first state crown since 2019 and third overall. Mandan (17-0-1) fell one win shy of a repeat.

“Tough game, I felt like we controlled the game, to be honest,” Mandan head coach Aaron McElwee said. “We knew they would be dangerous on set pieces and that’s what they created.”

Shanley converted on a corner kick in the opening half for what proved to be the game-winning goal. Hulstein got a late head touch on a corner off the foot Rohrich, giving the Deacons a 1-0 lead with 16 minutes remaining until halftime.

“The first goal in the first half, that sparked momentum,” Christianson said. “Coming off of last year, we scored a bunch of corners, but this year I think we only had one or two. To make it count in the state championship game, I’ll take it.”

Tanner Ecker / Bismarck Tribune

The first insurance goal for the Deacons came with less than 18 minutes left in the second, as Rohrich scored off a rebound.

“That second goal was a hustle effort by Emma with an awesome finish,” Christianson said. “Emma was locked in from yesterday’s game, two goals sparked the fire and led into today. She deserved that one.”

Yablonski, a freshman, scored her first varsity goal for a 3-0 lead with 1 minute, 31 seconds remaining, as Mandan tried to apply pressure late.

“Annie with the cherry on top with the deep ball after the goalie was pushed up to help her team,” Christianson said. “That’s a way to start off your varsity career. She was close earlier in the game with a shot that went wide of the post, but that was a heads-up play by her, noticing the goalie was out.”

Tanner Ecker / Bismarck Tribune

Mandan’s best chance came from senior Sarah Helderop, off a corner kick in the second half, but Shanley goalkeeper Kailey Ottmar knocked the ball down and grabbed the rebound before any Braves players could arrive.

“Kailey was focused from the beginning of the game, usually I talk to her a bit, but she wanted to be by herself,” Christianson said. “She didn’t have to do too much, but there was a corner, a free kick. She was heads-up and had a good handle on the ball.”

Ottmar finished with six saves to earn the shutout. Gabby Frohlich had three saves for Mandan.

“Congrats to Shanley,” McElwee said. “We were close.”

Tanner Ecker / Bismarck Tribune

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North Dakota

Shelly Frances, Minot, Chapter 7

Garrett Joseph Farnsworth, Bismarck, Chapter 7

Aaron James Goette, Horace, Chapter 13

Destinee L. Reed, Grand Forks, Chapter 7

LaWayne and Ruthanna Smith, Surrey, Chapter 13

Sabrina Marie Odegaard, formerly known as Sabrina Marie Wagner, Dickinson, Chapter 7

Krysti Mae Bench, formerly known as Krysti Mae Gainey, Fargo, Chaper 7

Tera Carleen Geyer, formerly known as Tera Dutchak, Dickinson, Chapter 7

Heath Alan Schaffer, LaMoure, Chapter 7

Nicholas Duane Noel, Fargo, Chapter 13

Jason Walter Lautt, Jamestown, Chapter 7

Bryan Lee Drinkman, Grand Forks, Chapter 7

Melia Kay Thompson, Grand Forks, Chapter 7

Roger Pelzer, Minot, Chapter 13

Jason Valentine and Amy Marie Keller, Bismarck, Chapter 13

Jaden Allen McGregor, Horace, Chapter 13

Rodney John and Jennifer Rebecca Brown, Williston, Chapter 13

Kayden Michelle Pavlicek, Dunn Center, Chapter 13

Minnesota

Bankruptcy filings from the following counties: Becker, Clay, Douglas, Grant, Hubbard, Mahnomen, Norman, Otter Tail, Polk, Traverse, Wadena and Wilkin.

Tyler Erick Nelson and Lisa Ann Nelson, formerly known as Lisa Costello, Dilworth, Chapter 13

Ethan Kenneth Edwards and Katherine Elizabeth Edwards, formerly known as Katherine Thornsburry, Park Rapids, Chapter 7

Amber Rae Durkin, formerly known as Amber O’Beirne, and James Robert Durkin, Bemidji, Chapter 13

Sierra Jade Ileene Isum, East Grand Forks, Chapter 7

Elizabeth Charlotte Smith, also known as Betsy Smith, Ogema, Chapter 7

Rebecca Lacey and Matthew Ian Angell, Alexandria, Chapter 7

Chapter 7 is a petition to liquidate assets and discharge debts.

Chapter 11 is a petition for protection from creditors and to reorganize.

Chapter 12 is a petition for family farmers to reorganize.

Chapter 13 is a petition for wage earners to readjust debts.

Our newsroom occasionally reports stories under a byline of “staff.” Often, the “staff” byline is used when rewriting basic news briefs that originate from official sources, such as a city press release about a road closure, and which require little or no reporting. At times, this byline is used when a news story includes numerous authors or when the story is formed by aggregating previously reported news from various sources. If outside sources are used, it is noted within the story.

FARGO — Terri Hedman has voted in North Dakota elections for 40 years, but during the coronavirus pandemic, she said she made the switch to mail-in and absentee ballots.

She’s cast her ballot at her south Fargo home ever since, she said, adding she appreciates the ease of voting ahead of the election.

“I’m a nurse. I like to plan ahead, and I like to make sure things are done,” she said. “I love the idea that I can vote and know that is a task that is completed.”

Hedman was one of 91,556 North Dakota voters who cast their ballots by mail or absentee in the 2024 general election. That made up 25% of the state’s votes that year, according to a Forum analysis of Secretary of State’s Office data.

“Vote by mail is critical for North Dakota,” Secretary of State Michael Howe said. “As a rural state, people can be hours away from a physical polling location. Voting by mail gives folks that option to vote.”

Another 27% cast their ballots during early in-person voting, meaning less than half of North Dakota voters went to the polls on Election Day in November 2024.

Cody Schuler, an advocacy manager for the ACLU in North Dakota, said he wasn’t surprised that mail-in and absentee voting have become more popular. Voting by mail offers many benefits, and people have many reasons for using that method, he said.

“That’s fantastic that people are exercising their right in a way that is easy and convenient for them,” he said in response to the 2024 numbers.

Absentee ballots can be requested 40 days before an election in North Dakota. Under a state law passed in 2025, mail-in and absentee ballots must be received by the county election office no later than the close of polls on Election Day.

That’s June 9 for the primary election and Nov. 3 for the general election this year.

Nearly 36,000 mail-in and absentee ballots have been sent to North Dakota voters as of Thursday, May 28, with 17,705 returned to election officials, according to state data. The state has 600,394 eligible voters, Howe said.

Of the state’s 53 counties, 34 are classified as vote-by-mail, meaning those counties automatically send out an application to eligible voters for mail-in ballots.

In the remaining 19 counties, voters must request ballots by mail.

North Dakota’s voting by mail process is “very secure,” Howe said. Voters have to prove that they have lived in North Dakota for 30 days prior to the election.

No one is sent a ballot unless a person applies for one, Howe said.

“Similarly, you are only mailed a ballot after identity verification,” he said.

Some counties depended on mail-in and absentee ballots much more than others, according to the Forum analysis. In McHenry County, 2,001 voters used the remote option, making up 72% of the county’s voters. Rolette County had the lowest rate of voting by mail or absentee with 11%, followed by Morton County (12%) and Cass County (13%).

Voting in person can be challenging, Schuler and Howe said. North Dakota law requires each county to have at least one polling place during elections, Howe said.

Nearly half of North Dakota’s counties only have one voting center, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. Those polling places may be miles away, making it difficult for some to make it, Schuler said.

“We are a very rural state, and for many people, distance is an issue,” he said.

Eight counties allow early in-person voting up to two weeks before Election Day: Burleigh, Cass, Grand Forks, Morton, Sioux, Stark, Stutsman and Ward.

Early voting in Cass County runs 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. June 2-5 and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 6.

Nine of Cass County’s 17 Election Day polling places are in the metro area. A Cass County resident who lives near Colgate, which sits on the Steele County border, has to drive 30 miles to the nearest polling place in Tower City to vote.

McHenry County’s lone polling place is Towner, which is about 50 miles east of Minot. The polling place is roughly 60 miles from the county’s southwest corner and 40 miles from Anamoose, a city of 212 people in the county’s southeast corner.

Many counties can’t have early voting or more than one polling place because they can’t find enough poll workers, Howe said.

“Each county is responsible for the cost of their election,” he said, adding counties have to pay poll worker wages and rent for polling places.

Voting is a fundamental right, Schuler said.

“Eligible voters should have as many opportunities and options to exercise that right as possible,” he said. “Mail-in voting is really an easy way to do that.”

Mail-in ballot voting has grown in North Dakota over the last decade, from 52,319 ballots, or about 21% of voters, in the 2014 general election to almost double the number of voters in 2024, according to state data.

Minnesota’s growth in absentee and mail-in voting grew more dramatically. Nearly 244,000 people, or 12% of voters, used the option in the 2014 general election, according to The Forum’s analysis of Minnesota data. That jumped to 41%, or 1.33 million voters, in the 2024 general election.

Voting by mail in the North Star State has inched up over the years, with the high mark coming in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said. More than 1.93 million voters, or 59%, cast their ballots by mail, according to his office.

“I think it reflects our flexible menu of ways that people can vote in Minnesota,” Simon said. “I think people like that accessibility and choice.”

About 39% of Clay County voters mailed in their ballots in the 2024 general election, according to Minnesota Secretary of State data.

Minnesota law allows townships and cities with fewer than 400 residents to forgo setting up a polling place and hold elections entirely by mail, Simon noted. Towns like it for the cost-savings, and residents in rural areas like the option of voting from home instead of having to drive miles to a voting center, he said.

“That’s something that more and more cities and townships have taken advantage of as well,” he said of mail-in only elections. “It’s gotten good reviews from people who just want to be able to vote with ease in a way that makes sense for their own lives.”

North Dakota held its 2020 primary election completely by mail in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Roughly 160,000 voted in that election, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Months later, more than 185,000 North Dakotans, or 51% of the state’s voters, cast their ballots by mail, according to state data.

“I think that opened up a lot of people to experience voting by mail for the first time,” Howe said. “I think people liked the comfort of it and liked the convenience of it.”

Overall, Howe said North Dakota does well at offering voting choices.

“That’s the beauty of North Dakota elections,” he said. “North Dakotans have the choice to vote in a way that is most convenient to them.”

As a nurse, Hedman said emergencies can happen, including on Election Day, that call her attention away from tasks at hand. Being able to plan ahead makes voting easier, she said.

“This way, I feel confident that my voice is heard,” she said.

More information on voting in North Dakota, including absentee voting, can be found at

sos.nd.gov/elections/voter

. Voters also can find Minnesota information at

sos.mn.gov/elections-voting

.