BY SAPNA PATHAK

If it were up to him, Curt Killion’s team would have a better record. If he had his way, his squad would spend practices talking strategy for the postseason instead of thinking about next year.

But after losing four of his top six players, Killion doesn’t have those luxuries.

With their final match on Wednesday, May 16, the head coach of Salem High’s girls tennis team finds himself looking not at a 14-year streak of making the playoffs but at the future.

“I was hoping to do a little better, hoping we’d upset a couple matches and sneak into the playoffs,” said Killion. “We hit a part of the schedule where we faced some second-tier teams, and I thought we could take some wins, but we lost close ones. Things became more apparent, and now we’re looking at next year.”

Facing Class L contender Central, the Blue Devils were shut out, 9-0, on Monday, May 14. The Little Green dominated a young Salem team trying to find its way through inexperience.

In singles, returning senior Courtney Viehl was defeated, 8-0, in the No. 1 singles set. No. 2 player Iris Wilbur-Kamien was also held scoreless; Andrea Vinci lost, 8-3; Angela Rullo fell, 8-3, in the No. 4 singles set; Julianna Blaisdell lost, 8-0; and Nicole Antonelli dropped an 8-6 decision.

The doubles duo of Viehl and Vinci lost, 8-0; Wilbur-Kamien and Fay Long lost, 8-1; and Blaisdell and Antonelli fell, 8-4.

Matches decided by doubles sets have stung the Blue Devils this season, including losses to Alvirne, Timblerlane and Pinkerton.

“When we were at Pinkerton and lost, that was the toughest one this year,” said Viehl. “It came down to doubles, and we only won one where we had to win two to win. It’s just frustrating not to win those close matches because they make a big difference in how you end the season.”

Though 2007 marks the first time Salem won’t be in the postseason since 1993, Killion said the struggles came as no surprise.

With a large group of sophomores, including Rullo and Blaisdell, the Blue Devils mentor said he decided to identify this season as an anomaly.

“Some teams in Class L have continuously found themselves in the bottom,” said Killion. “And maybe that’s because they’re coming out there expecting to lose. I don’t want them to get used to losing. This is not something they should expect to do again.”