Merrimack girls volleyball holds off Salem for win

MERRIMACK – For the second Wednesday in a row, the Salem High School girls volleyball team found itself down two games on the road.

But this time, there would be no valiant comeback for the Blue Devils.

Merrimack jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the Division I match, dropped Game 3, but managed to hold off Salem in the fourth game for a 3-1 victory. Game scores were 25-23, 25-18, 22-25, 25-21.

For the Tomahawks (7-2), it was a huge win coming off a loss to Bedford on Monday.

“(Tuesday) we only practiced for an hour,” Merrimack coach Tammy Lambrou said. “On Monday, we missed 16 serves and we were aced eight times, so we focused just on serving and serve receive and it showed (against Salem).”

Merrimack got 10 digs and 10 kills from Christie Roy, while Jen Coffey had 10 digs and nine kills, and Jo Coffey chipped in with 32 assists. Taylor Handy (nine kills, four digs) and Kara Lyford (eight digs) also played well for the ’Hawks.

After losing in five to the Bulldogs the last time out – in a match the ’Hawks led 2-1 – Lambrou saw a great improvement not just with the team’s play, but with their intensity.

“They fought hard and then all of a sudden, when it became crunch time, we couldn’t finish,” she said of Monday. “We’re playing to 25 no matter what happens. If we win one, it doesn’t matter, we go back out there and play Game 2. It doesn’t matter what happens the game before.”

Salem (6-3) dropped its second straight match, but coach John Roemer felt his team played well given some changes it had made during the week. After having to rally three times to beat Hollis Brookline last Wednesday, and losing 3-0 to Timberlane on Friday, Roemer felt it was to try something different.

“We’re trying to get the matchups better with our hitters and setters,” he said. “There are pluses and minuses and we’re trying to play to our strengths. This was the first time we were running it. It was us being out of sorts from where we should have been. We’re still learning that we’ve got to fight for it. They’re getting better and better, which is good.”

Both teams are a part of an eight-team jam in the D1 standings behind first-place Dover (9-0). After Wednesday night’s matches, there were three teams with two losses and five teams with three.

“I think everyone is going to progress,” Roemer said. “It’s just going to be a matter of who can emotionally take the challenge. The teams are similar, but it’s going to be who can get their team to play as one. We’re working on a lot of things and eventually that’s going to click. I think we’ll figure it out faster and hopefully at the right time.”

Lambrou doesn’t think being in the middle of the pack will hurt her team at all. In fact, after being the No. 1 seed in each of the last two seasons, it might help the ’Hawks.

“The last two years, being first in the regular season put a target on our backs,” she said. “This year, if we’re in the middle of the pack, we want to surprise people at the end. Our focus is to just get better every day and surprise people.”