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NASHUA — There is a fine line between confidence and overconfidence and standout senior Joe Gallant doesn’t believe the Salem boys volleyball team will cross it tomorrow in the New Hampshire championship match against Londonderry. The six-time defending champion Blue Devils may have crossed it briefly yesterday, when they played poorly in the third game and fell 25-17 to Pinkerton. But they recovered for a 25-15 romp in the fourth game for a 3-1 victory. The No. 1-seed Devils (15-1) will now play here in tomorrow’s 6 p.m. championship against Londonderry (14-3), which swept Timberlane 25-20, 25-19, 25-23 in the other semifinal. “I don’t know if we were overconfident (in the third game) but we might have been too relaxed,” said Gallant. “I know we were overconfident against Timberlane (when it broke Salem’s 125-match win streak two weeks ago) and we can’t let that happen again. “We know Londonderry is good and we’ll have to look out for (Londonderry standout) Matt Hersey, but we’ll be all right if we  play our game. We didn’t play our game against Timberlane.” Salem was on its game at the start last night, recording the first six points of the night with Joe Dube serving and, paced by the net play of sophomore Eric Denning and Cory Forrest (12 kills on the night), cruised to a 25-19 victory. “Eric is our energy guy and can really get us going,” said Salem coach Scott Wright. “He and Steve Nugent, another sophomore, have really come on recently.” Nugent had a strong second game, with help from Gallant (12 kills in the match), and Salem rolled again, 25-19. After the Astros rallied in the third game, Gallant took over with five kills in Salem’s clincher. “It’d be awesome to go out with another state title,” said Gallant. “That’s what we’re shooting for.” Wright knows it won’t be easy. “I’m expecting a tough time of it,” said the first-year head coach. “They’re an aggressive team and we can’t be lackadaisical like I think we were a little in the third game.” For Pinkerton (11-7), Justin Scott led a balanced attack with six kills. “We played all right, but Salem’s serving kept us off balance,” said Pinkerton coach Colin Walker. Lancers gear for challenge Although Londonderry lost to Salem twice during the regular season, Lancers’ star Matt Hersey is more than excited to make the third time the charm. “I can’t wait to play them again,” said Hersey. “We’re a different team now. We’ve really come together the last few weeks and new guys like Mike Galluzzo have really stepped up. “Beating Salem would be the best way to end my career.” Hersey, a first team all-state player, was immense throughout yesterday’s match, but particularly in the toughest last game, which saw seven lead changes and required a late 6-3 Londonderry spurt in order to prevail, 25-23. Londonderry won the first two games 25-20 and 25-19 with Hersey’s serving shifting the momentum back to the Lancers for good late in the second game. Timberlane (13-4), which ended Salem’s 125-match winning streak two weeks ago, was led by the net play of Max LaRoche (eight kills) and the all-around performance of senior Conor Dube. But the Owls just couldn’t sustain a run throughout the match. “To win a big match, we need to be consistent, be energetic and get good passing,” said Timberlane coach John Dube. “When we get away from those things, like we did at times tonight, we have problems. “We didn’t have the consistency we needed at other times, either. But overall, with the little experience some of my kids have, I think we had a tremendous season.”

With Matt Wetmore's 75-percent hitting accuracy and two blocks along with six straight service points from Joe Gallant, Salem rolled to an impressive 3-0 victory over Keene to open Division 1 tournament play. Gallant added a team-high five blocks and three aces as the Blue Devils advance to the semifinals tomorrow at Nashua North against Pinkerton.

Salem closed out its battle with Pinkerton strong as Alex Gomes was moved to setter and had 25 assists in the last two games while sophomore Eric Denning was 4 for 4 serving in a 3-1 victory. Rory Cohoon paced the Astros with 7 service points, 6 kills and 3 blocks.

The magnitude of what had just happened didn’t hit Conor Dube until he saw a former teammate. Just moments after putting an end to the area’s longest high school volleyball winning streak, Dube received a big congratulations from former teammate and current Lasell College player Alex Mill who proclaimed “you just made history!!!” And that’s what Timberlane did. The host Owls not only ended Salem’s 125-match streak, a streak that started when the program began seven years ago, but they did it in stunning fashion by overcoming a 2-0 deficit to win the last three games, 25-23, 25-23, 15-12. “It is really amazing,” said Dube a senior who is on his way to Princeton this fall. “This is one of the biggest nights in Timberlane volleyball history, to this point.” The Owls (12-2) dropped the first two games, 25-18 and 28-26, before bouncing back. Max LaRoche and Joe Coye each led Timberlane with 12 kills and 10 blocks each. Dube had 35 assists and Tom Matatall had 28 service points and 15 digs. “After a couple of minutes of celebrating, it hit me what we just did,” said LaRoche, who will attend Boston University this fall. “It was exhilarating.  All the students just came out of the stands on to the floor. It was great.” The Owls feature a very small roster, with only 11 players and only two with prior varsity experience prior to this year, according to Owl head coach John Dube. “Even when we were down 2-0 (in games) we knew that we just had to be steady and consistent,” said coach Dube. “We didn’t do anything different in games three, four and five. “We just have a lot of heart on this team. I am so proud of this team, they just kept plugging away.” I felt that fourth game was the key for us,’ said John Dube. “The guys all felt ‘we’ve got this.’  It was pretty amazing to watch.” Although they won’t dominate the stat sheet, Clay Campbell and Tim Sullivan each came up with some key kills in the fourth and fifth games. Erik Kaasila registered four huge blocks in the last two games. Gracious in defeat, Salem head coach Scott Wright said that this loss will be a good test for his team. “(The end of the winning streak) was going to happen, eventually,” said Wright. “I am more anxious to see how the kids react to this loss when we play again on Tuesday. Their reaction will be more important than the streak.” Wright also tipped his hat to a solid Timberlane team.  “They looked hungrier than we did,” he said. “They certainly had a lot of heart and hustle. They made some good game adjustments and covered their blockers. “We gave up a lot of points and couldn’t come back from the deficit,” said Wright. Zack Meisner and Corey Forrest led Salem with 17 kills each. Joe Gallant had nine blocks and Alex Gomes had 45 assists. LaRoche and Conor Dube said they will celebrate, but not lose focus of the bigger picture.   “Obviously, it is a great win,” said the younger Dube.  “But it is a regular season league win. It is something that we can celebrate but Monday we have to get back to work. There is a bigger picture at the end of the regular season and the playoffs.”

Cory Forrest posted 10 kills and 10 digs to lead Salem boys volleyball past Londonderry 3-0. Salem remains perfect at 12-0. 

Joe Dube's six aces led Salem, which tallied 23 aces as a team on the way to downing John Stark 25-8, 25-8, 25-6.

 LONDONDERRY – New Hampshire’s volleyball villain doesn’t dress in black. These wanted men wear white on the road, trimmed in royal.

  LONDONDERRY — New Hampshire’s volleyball villain doesn’t dress in black. On the road, these wanted men wear white trimmed in royal. But have no doubt, Salem High, even under mild-mannered first-year coach Scott Wright, remains the bad boy of Granite State volleyball. “Nobody likes us here, not the referees, not anybody,” said senior Zach Meisner, shortly after he and Salem sent yet another would-be posse home empty-handed by dumping Londonderry in four games. That’s 120 straight for these gunslingers of the hardcourt. The seventh-year program has yet to taste defeat. All the pieces were in place for the streak to finally end. The Blue Devils are supposedly in rebuilding mode under Wright. The only other coach the varsity program had known, E.J. Perry, has moved on to coach football at Andover High. And the rest of New Hampshire has supposedly caught up. Londonderry, which entered with a 7-1 record, got a dose of reality yesterday. “We go out every day knowing that everybody wants to take us out,” said Wright. Salem tortured Londonderry in a style that might have made legendary professional wrestling heel Ric Flair proud. The Blue Devils appeared stunned in Game 1, trailing 24-21 when co-captains Meisner and Joe Gallant lifted their shoulders off the mat for the 26-24 win. They were pulverized by the Lancers in Game 2 as Londonderry star Matt Hersey unleashed his power game in a 25-16 win. But Salem blunted the flurry early in the third, despite sinking into a 9-2 hole. Salem gave Londonderry and its home crowd one last thrill. Salem trailed 23-20 in Game 4 but slapped the finishing hold on the Lancers and turned out the lights. Again, it was Gallant, Cory Forrest and Meisner up front with some game back-row work from Jonny Klecan and Drew O’Shaughnessy, sealing up No. 120 before the Lancers knew what hit them. “They said in the newspaper that they’d be the team. There would be no 120,” said Meisner. “We ripped it up and laughed at it. We just said to heck with these guys. We’re going to beat them.” While Wright says his players and he himself downplay the streak, there has to be something to it. To a volleyball neophyte like myself, the talent on both sides looked pretty similar. But once the play got into the 20s, Salem simply flipped a switch. Wright, who starred on Salem’s first state championship team in the fall of 2004, explained his team’s mentality: “They get angry, they know they’re better than the way they’ve played it at time. Sometimes they let the game slip away from them. Then reality kicks in. They decide it’s all business.” For a senior like Forrest, who plays no other sports, he gathers his strength out of desperation. “Just focus on every point and play every game like it’s my last,” he said. Londonderry isn’t going anywhere. The Lancer posse is closing in on these volleyball desperados. “They have the athletes, they have talent,” said Londonderry coach David Starin. “They have that confidence about them, they know they’ve never lost. When you have that confidence, and that swagger, and you bring it to the table, it definitely shows. “But the game we won, we were very sharp. It was probably the best we played all year, and we beat them 25-16. We need to have that focus for two hours, not just game 2.” Londonderry will get at least one more chance, possibly two. “I don’t know if you can prepare to lose, it just happens,” said Wright. “I’m not really sure how this team would respond to it. It’s going to be very interesting if or when it does happen.”

Salem 3, Londonderry 1 Kills: L — Matt Hersey 12; S — Zach Meisner 11, Cory Forrest 9, Joe Gallant 7 Blocks: L — Kyle Willis 4, Dan Tierney 4; S — Gallant 9, Forrest 8 Assists: L — Mike Galluzzo 28; S — Alex Gomes 27 Service points (aces): L — Troy Rooney 12 (1) Hersey (6); S — Eric Denning 12 (3) Digs: L — Jared Schwalbe 7; S — Meisner 7, Forrest 7 Salem (8-0):    28 16 25 26 — 3 Londonderry (7-2):    26 25 19 24 — 1 

Losing a game for only the second time this season, Salem rode the strong contributions of reserves Matt Wetmore (three blocks) and Brandon Ackroyd (seven service points and three aces) to a 2-1 volleyball victory over Dover.

Another well-rounded team effort for Salem and another victory as Oyster River fell in the season-opener, 25-18, 25-15, 25-22. Alex Gomes spread the offense around well with 28 assists.