It was no coincidence where the Salem High School boys tennis team held its first preseason meeting.

The Blue Devils sat as a group beneath the 2008 state championship banner hanging at the school, and head coach Mike Jolicoeur hoped to send a message to his team.

“We wanted the guys to get a sense for what this season meant,” said Jolicoeur.

“They knew it’d be an uphill battle to try to duplicate what those guys did last year, and they know that still.”

Salem’s quest for a second straight title remains possible; the Blue Devils wrapped up a 12-2 regular season with a 9-0 victory against Dover on Friday, May 22.

With the win, the Blue Devils sealed the third seed in the Class L postseason. The closest match of the day came during No. 1 singles play. Joel Vastl earned a hard-fought 9-7 victory to cap a stellar regular-season record of 11-3.

Jolicoeur said the key to Vastl’s success comes from his powerful first serve, which, when accurate, causes his foes fits. “When he (hits puts his first serve in play), he’s extremely hard to beat,” said the coach.

Nick Noshirwani posted the best individual mark for the Blue Devils, and with a win over Dover in the No. 5 spot, he finished the regular season at 13-1.

Though Salem won the state title last year, only two players in this year’s ladder played regularly in ’08. Vastl was the No. 4 singles player, while Chris Correia played from the sixth spot.

Correia had been struggling entering the match with Dover, but came away with an easy 8-2 win over Nate Muscato.

The Class L tournament is scheduled to begin with a firstround match up with rival Pinkerton on Thursday, May 28, at 4 p.m., at Griffin Park.

Although Salem had already clinched the match with Dover after singles play, Jolicoeur decided his usual doubles teams required additional court time.

“Normally if we had won six singles, we wouldn’t have played them,” he said. “We didn’t look that good in doubles against Exeter, so we wanted to get them some work entering the postseason.”