Brainerd Girls’ Tennis Leaning on Mental Fortitude in 2024

Brainerd girls’ tennis finished 2023 on a high note, clinching its first trip to state as a team since 2011. Now, after the retirement of Warrior Hall of Fame Head Coach Lisa Salo, the team is under new but familiar management in Garrett Goeden, who also took over as the boys’ tennis coach last spring.

Warrior tennis kicked off 2024 with a clean slate and is currently 3-0, due in large part to the depth the team is showing.

“We’re a newer team, we had a lot of seniors graduate last year,” said captain Brooke Mulholland. “But we’re very strong this year and I think [we’re] going to make it far because we’ve had a lot of younger people, but they’re really strong, like Taryn [Mithun]. She’s a freshman this year and she was on our team last year, but she just really has the game and she’s taking it to the next level.”

And the Warriors think that what else can take them to the next level is being more on the attack on the court rather than on the back foot.

“We’ve been focusing more on strategy and just being super aggressive at the net, especially … finding ways to get to the net from the baseline and just being overall aggressive and taking risks rather than being a defensive team,” explained captain Ericah Folden.

While the Warriors only return three players from the last year’s lineup, Coach Goeden, who knows a thing or two about competing at the state tournament for the Brainerd boys, knows how much the entire team learned from simply watching that level of competition.

“It’s not just varsity and junior varsity, right?” Goeden said. “Yes, the varsity team made it to state, but the junior varsity team was there. They were at the practices, they were at the matches, they saw what that takes. And so it’s really a good feeling as a coach like, hey, we have all these players that experience this in a different realm, okay? Now they’re ready to get it for themselves, right?

The Brainerd girls’ tennis will follow a different script in 2024, as the team is brimming with newfound experience after last year’s trip to state. The girls are looking to apply that experience to their in-match mentalities.

“I remember when I first started, I’d be losing a game and I’d start crying because I was just so upset. And now it’s like, you can’t let one point define you or one game define you,” stated Mulholland. “You have to keep going, and your mental toughness and how you face adversity is going to define who you are as a player more than if you’re forehand’s good or if you’re backhand’s good.”

Mulholland, along with Folden and her doubles teammate Leah Soukup, have yet to drop a single set this season, a big reason the Warriors are undefeated in the early goings.