Placer girls tennis hopes to move a mountain in postseason as it works through FVL

Placer High School's girls tennis team has its sights set on a second consecutive Sac-Joaquin Section final appearance, with one team in particular it wants to meet there: Mountain House. Last year, the Hillgals were defeated 9-0 by Mountain House in the Division IV section championship match. Although the score looked lopsided, Placer stood toe to toe with the Mustangs in every match, but lady luck was not on their side that fateful afternoon in Stockton. "We should be making a run for the section title, and it just depends on if Mountain House is in there or not. And if they are, I think we'll give them a run for their money," Placer coach Tom Isaac said. "We had competitive matches every match last year, but we just came up a little bit short." Leading the charge back to a section championship is reigning Foothill Valley League MVP and No. 1 singles player Michelle Schwarzenberg, a senior who provides leadership on and off the court and has high expectations for herself and her team. "We're so excited to be out here. We're very competitive this year, and so far, things are going pretty good," Schwarzenberg said. "I've definitely improved over the years now." To get to a section title, Placer must first make it through the FVL. The Hillgals have dominated in their first three matches, defeating West Park, Ponderosa and Lincoln by a combined 26-1. Placer looked especially strong in Thursday's road match against Lincoln, sweeping all nine matches in two sets and only dropping two games. While the Hillgals have had smooth sailing early, things get considerably harder in the coming weeks, as they still have two matchups with Oakmont. The schools split the league title last year with league records of 9-1. "Oakmont's got some new freshmen coming in and they are experienced tennis players," Isaac said. "They were good last year and their team is gonna be better than last year. But our team is also better than last year so it should be a feisty match, everyone from the singles all the way down through all the doubles." Isaac knows that while his program has had success over the years, Placer often has to fight an uphill battle to compete with the likes of Oakmont and Mountain House. Many incoming players at the bigger programs play tennis year-round and enter high school with experience, but at Placer, the majority of the players have never played before. To overcome the lack of experience, Isaac has ramped up the training for his players so they are prepared to compete with anyone. "These are kids that aren't year-round tennis players like you might see at Granite Bay or Rocklin or some other places," Isaac said. "We take thousands of volleys at practice. This isn't like basketball where you go shoot 20 or 30 foul shots. All of the girls have special projects that they spend extra time on as well." Placer's next home match is Tuesday, Sept. 27, against Nevada Union.