At the 2022 World Junior Championships, she won the gold medal in the 50-metre butterfly with a Croatian record time of 26.38 seconds at 15 years of age.

[10][11] In October, at the 2021 FINA Swimming World Cup stop held at Danube Arena in Budapest, Hungary, and conducted in short course metres, Pavalić placed ninth in the 50-metre butterfly with a Croatian record and personal best time of 26.34 seconds, breaking the former record set by Monika Babok in 2009.

[15] The month following the World Cup, she competed at the Miting Mladost in Zagreb, setting a new Croatian record of 59.16 seconds in the short course 100-metre butterfly.

[2][16] As a 14-year-old in December, Pavalić competed at the 2022 World Short Course Championships, contested at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, placing 37th on day two of competition in her first event, the 100-metre freestyle, with a time of 55.45 seconds.

[19][20] In the preliminary heats of the 4×100-metre freestyle relay on day one of the 2022 European Junior Swimming Championships, held in July in Otopeni, Romania, Pavalić set a new Croatian record in the 100-metre freestyle with a time of 56.09 seconds, helping qualify the relay to the final ranking eighth with a Croatian record time of 3:49.81.

[26][27][28][29] For her first event of the 2022 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships, held in August and September in Lima, Peru, Pavalić won the gold medal in the 50-metre butterfly at 15 years, 98 days of age with a Croatian record time of 26.38 seconds, which was 0.29 seconds faster than silver medalist Beatriz Bezerra of Brazil.