Montgomery High School junior Caroline Beard was just 8 years old when she won her first tennis tournament.

But her journey in the sport starts further back, at the Galvin Community Park tennis courts in Santa Rosa. Her father, Jason, was the head professional for the city.

“When she was a kid, I would take her with me to all of my tennis lessons,” Jason Beard said. “She was able to rally and play tennis by 2 years old.”

Fast-forward to now, and Caroline can do a lot more than just hold her own.

The junior standout reached the North Coast Section Division 2 singles final this fall after not losing a game during the entire league season. She is currently ranked in the top 100 nationally in the 18-and-under age group by the U.S. Tennis Association and has a Universal Tennis Rating of 9.0, comparable with some NCAA Division I athletes.

Going undefeated the entire season “was kind of my goal,” Caroline said. “Last year I ended up losing two games, and that was in the last match. So that was my goal, to focus on not losing a match. Which sounds terrible, by the way.”

An aggressive baseliner, Beard loves to dictate play from the back of the court. She said her favorite shot is her forehand, although she can’t quite decide whether she likes hitting cross-court or down the line more.

High school tennis players compete to win two out of three sets. Within each set, the first player to win six games earns that set. Those all went the junior’s way during the regular season.

In the section tournament last month, she faced a tough challenge once she got to the semifinal round, needing three hours to eventually beat her Las Lomas opponent in three sets, 6-7, 6-2, 6-1.

But that lengthy win came at a cost: Beard had only a half-hour to get ready to play in the final, where she lost 6-1, 6-3 to Montana Parkinson of Amador Valley.

Despite that loss, the Vikings standout has been on an upward trajectory ever since she won that first tournament at age 8. Now multiple colleges are interested, which is a new wrinkle.

“I used to play really relaxed, but ever since colleges started reaching out in June, I got more stressed with it,” she admitted. “It is a lot of pressure and I just got more stressed. Right now, I’m just trying to play relaxed and play how I normally do.”

“I think she just started to feel a lot more pressure,” her father added. “Her UTR was really high; her national ranking was really high — I think this past year she’s struggled more mentally than she had in the past.”

But before heading off to college somewhere, Beard still has her senior season in front of her.

It will be her second year at Montgomery without her older sister, Georgia, who graduated this past spring.

While the two didn’t play much doubles together growing up (Caroline admitted they would sometimes get into fights, as siblings do), they did team up to win the NCS doubles title last year.

“We were kind of the same, in the sense that we both wanted to be No. 1 at Montgomery, and we both have been playing for so long,” Beard said. “We’d chat all the time, and when we were done with our matches and watch other players. It’s different for sure, but I still text her and call her after each match.”

After this fall’s runner-up finish, Beard will have one more crack at the NCS title next year as a senior. Is that a source of motivation?

“Yeah, definitely, it is,” she said confidently.

You can reach Staff Writer Kienan O’Doherty at 415-887-8650 or kienan.odoherty@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @kodoherty22.