BY MATT STOUT

A little more than three weeks ago, when the Salem girls lacrosse team huddled together for one of its first practices in May, Blue Devils coach Faith Wahlen sensed frustration, disappointment and, perhaps, broken confidence.

Losers of four straight at the time, Salem had just stepped face to face with all but one of the top teams in Division I and proved, despite the setbacks, the team wasn’t far from joining them atop the standings.

“(Wahlen) kind of asked us, ‘What do you like about this team and what do I think this team can do better?’” said junior Tatum Dyer. “And we all pretty much said the same thing and agreed – when you know you’re capable of something and you just can’t do it, it’s frustrating. I think that kind of hit everyone on the team.”

Ever since, Salem has hit back. Before dropping a 16-7 decision to undefeated Pinkerton Academy on Tuesday, May 22, the Blue Devils built a seven-game win streak, with convincing wins over Keene, Manchester Memorial, Manchester Central and two against Nashua North.

As importantly, it started to execute the way it thought it could all season.

In scoring 13 or more goals in six straight games, Salem’s offense – predicated on speed and well-executed passes – found the rhythm it lacked in April. Meanwhile, the Taylor Dyer-led defense, made up of several first-year starters, started to click.

The win streak, in turn, helped propel the Blue Devils back into the middle of a crowded Division I field. They’ll find out on Thursday, May 31, if the mix of momentum and confidence they’ve found will equal the same success in the quarterfinals of the state tournament.

“They’re learning how to pick themselves up,” Wahlen said. “I had moved a couple people at the beginning of the season, so it was like, ‘Where is this person going to go? What’s this person going to do?’ Now, they’re learning how to play a little better with each other, read each other, know where other people are going to be. They’re just understanding each other a little better than usual.”

That growing comfort level may be most evident on attack. In recent weeks, the scoring load has shifted from one or two people to several. In its 17-4 win over Memorial on Thursday, May 17, Salem received contributions from nine different scorers, including Kyleigh Keating, who scored four times; Afton Marshall, who scored thrice; and Sara Halbrich, who also notched three.

It’s a step up from when Salem was losing, though the team knows it necessarily didn’t play badly
during the skid. Londonderry, jockeying for a top-four seed, needed overtime to finally down Salem, 13-11, on April 24.

“I think we are pretty confident, and, even the games that we lose, we come out saying, ‘That was definitely winnable,’” said Taylor Dyer. “We go in there against the good teams ready to work hard and hoping to upset them because we’re never the favorite in those situations.”

That’s one of the many things they like about their team.

“They’re coming back to fight,” Wahlen said of her players, “which is a good thing.”