“Look beautiful, play beautiful.” Mayo Girls’ Tennis team lives by this quote off and on the court. The team has an amazingly close bond that keeps them together throughout each tennis season, a bond that seems impossible to break. With help from Coach Edwards and captains Kailee Johnson, Emily Norman, and Kaitlyn Schultz, the team made it to the State Tennis Tournament for twenty-one out of the last twenty-two years. The girls’ tennis team just finished their season at the tournament, playing as a class 1AA team, all while looking beautiful and playing beautiful.   

The season started in August with their first match at the Mayo Invite. The team started strong, and kept that same energy throughout the entire season. With some new faces to the team, they were excited to see what this season would bring them. Seventh grader Taylor Hill and ninth grader Grace Ackerman were both new to the team this year and have already earned their places playing varsity. “We were super excited to see new people trying out because it makes our team newer, fresher, and even better than last season,” said senior and captain Kailee Johnson.

As the season continued on into October, tennis was going fantastic for the team as a whole and for all of the individual players. The team prepared for the end-of-the-season tournaments such as section and state by not only playing in high school league tournaments, but also by doing individual tournaments throughout the season. A large majority of the girls on the team also take lessons through other instructors rather than just their coaches to help prepare them for tournaments and matches for the rest season. Assistant coach Jeff Demaray runs a doubles camp in the summer for the girls to participate in, through which they can learn how to play with a partner and further their ability to play doubles.

The team played in the state tournament October 23-26. The first day of state included time for the team to practice on the courts at the University of Minnesota Baseline tennis courts, where the tournament was held the following days. On Monday night, the team attended the annual state banquet where they got to see all of the other teams participating and playing in the following matches. They also enjoyed a buffet and got to spend quality time with their teammates. On October 24, the team woke up bright and early, ready to play their first match of the state tournament. They played against Wayzata in their first round in seven tough and timely matches. Unfortunately, they lost 1-6. Amalin Sorajja won her 2 singles match against them, winning in a third set tiebreaker. Later on in the day, Mayo played against Eagan, who has been a huge competitor of the team for years. They also lost 3-4, which was an extremely close match. After losing both of these matches, the team was out of the tournament as a whole. Later on in the week, there were both individual and doubles matches that certain members from the team had to qualify for. Junior Emma Trncic played St. Cloud Tech in an individual match, which she won. Juniors Emily Norman and Amalin Sorajja played together as doubles partners for the day, but lost to Edina.

Overall, the team went 21-1 through the season, which was an incredible feat for them. The team has grown together and learned more about responsibility, respect, and playing together throughout this spectacular season.

1 Singles: Emma Trncic (11)

2 Singles: Amalin Sorajja (11)

3 Singles: Taylor Julsrud (10)

4 Singles: Sutton Julsrud (8)

1 Dubs: Emily Norman (11) and Ani Bulbulian (9)

2 Dubs: Kailee Johnson (12) and Ellen Baranczyk (10)

3 Dubs: Deeya Patel (10) and Grace Ackerman (9)

Alternates: Taylor Hill (7), Connie Chen (11), Mia Ikeda (10),  Rachel Zhang (10), and Kaitelyn Schultz (12)