Olivia Heim and Taylor Perz were not satisfied with their performance as a doubles team in the WPIAL tournament last season, so they went and did something about it.

A senior and sophomore, respectively, at Pine-Richland High School, the duo worked on their games together and got a better result this time, becoming the first Rams girls' duo to win a WPIAL tennis title when they defeated Julie Stroyne and Caroline Nixon of Peters Township in the Class AAA doubles final last month, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5.

"Last year we didn't do as well as we expected, so we put in more work and we played together more so we were more used to it when doubles came," Heim said.

"We definitely started to know each other and know where each other was going to move and knew where to hit it by the time we got to WPIALs this year, so it worked well."

Heim and Perz long ago established themselves as two of the top junior female tennis players in the area; Heim is ranked No. 21 by the USTA among players 18 and under in its Middle States region that covers Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and part of West Virginia, and Perz is ranked No. 17 by the USTA among those 16 and under.

Each player also has been ranked consistently among the top 200 players in the country by respected TennisRPI and tennisrecruiting.net, and Heim has accepted a scholarship to the University of Delaware, a Division I program.

But this season, the two put a renewed emphasis on doubles, and it showed. Heim and Perz -- the Rams' first and second singles players, respectively, in team play -- won the Section 2-AAA doubles title early last month (losing only eight games in four matches) and won all four matches in the WPIAL tournament, not losing a set en route to meeting Stroyne and Nixon in the final.

By finishing among the top two in the WPIAL, they qualified for the PIAA tournament last weekend at the Hershey Racquet Club. Heim and Perz won their first three matches in Hershey without losing a set before meeting Stroyne and Nixon again with a championship on the line. This time, however, the team from Peters Township won, 6-1, 6-3.

"This year we worked so hard at it," Perz said. "I thought we went from being two singles players playing doubles to actually being a great doubles team this year. We played together, and I thought we ended up working as a team.

"I was really happy with the way things turned out. I would have preferred the win, but [the Peters twosome] played great in the final. What are you going to do?"

As for what happened between the WPIAL and PIAA tournaments to change the result, the Rams are chalking it up to the confidence boost the Indians' players received when Peters Township marched to surprising victories at the WPIAL and PIAA Class AAA team tournaments the two previous weekends.

"Peters really, really played well this time," Rams coach Janet Chappell said. "They were just full of confidence coming off the state [team] tournament. What can I tell you? Our kids did a great job but Peters really played well.

"That's one of those matches that, obviously, can go either way depending on the day. And Saturday was definitely Peters' day."

No shame in finishing with a PIAA silver medal to go along with the WPIAL gold. It was quite the way to end a career for Heim, who set a Pine-Richland record by winning 106 matches in her four years on the team.

"I definitely didn't expect that when I started out my freshman year," Heim said. "But it makes me happy. I worked hard, so it's nice to be rewarded."

"Olivia is just a kid who's fun to have on the team," Chappell said. "She's fun to be around, and it's just really been a nice thing to have her playing for Pine-Richland."

Mike White's "High School Sports Edition" videos are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.