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Salem beats Londonderry for 120th straight win

Tuesday, May, 10 By Hector Longo
Staff writer

 
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 

Additional stories:

• Bad boys of volleyball still untouchable