RUMFORD – They sat in the middle of the practice field, some leaning on lacrosse sticks, some cross-legged, and some relaxing, face to the sky.

At the open end of the horseshoe-shaped grouping of girls, coach Rick White spoke softly.

“You’ve started to earn respect, but we can’t let up now,” White said. “I have every bit of confidence that you will make the playoffs, but when we get there, we have to be focused. Now, let’s get going.”

The girls broke up into groups and began their normal warmups.

This is not your older sibling’s Mountain Valley Falcons girls’ lacrosse team.

Those teams went nearly four full seasons without winning a single game. The Falcons lost 12 games in 2005, 12 more in 2006 and 2007 and 11 in a row to begin last year’s campaign before finally earning a victory in the last game of the regular season.

“My freshman and sophomore year, we went completely winless,” Mountain Valley senior Tayor Smith said, trying to hide a hint of embarrassment in her tone. “It just wasn’t fun to lose all the time. But now it’s different.”

Now, the word “playoffs” is spoken freely.

“We haven’t been to the playoffs for a long time,” Mountain Valley senior Brittany Coulombe said. “I think it’s important we can talk about it now.”

For the record, the Falcons last made the playoffs back in 2002, and that one win last season, it appears, was the catalyst for this year’s run.

“They’re finally getting what we’ve been telling them for the last few years,” White said. “It took that win last year, but it’s sinking in that they can win, that they can go out there and make the playoffs.”

“We’re seniors now, and we wanted to go out, our last year, with a bang,” Coulombe said.

Mountain Valley opened this season on a 3-1 run, and briefly held the top position in the initial Heal Points standings. Even a 1-4 stretch since then has put the Falcons at 4-5 with three games to play.

In addition to the nearly 10 veteran seniors on the team, Mountain Valley added overall depth when it welcomed senior Emily Child, a star for the school’s track team in 2008, and freshman sensation Ayla Allen, who has already set the school’s single-season freshman scoring record.

“We got three new girls on the team, which helped a lot,” Smith said. “The fact that the senior girls, most of us have been together all four years now help. Most of our starting lineup has experience. It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to say that.”

Add to the mix the experience many team members gained as participants on the school’s championship field hockey and basketball teams, and the Falcons started with one foot in front from the very beginning.

“That win was absolutely huge for this group,” White said. “And then we got a chance to play St. Dom’s in a scrimmage this season and we won 22-0, and there was a whole mindset change.”

Then, it was a matter of winning, and learning to do so on a consistent basis.

“Our main goal has been to play together, to make sure we passed well and talked to each other out there,” Coulombe said.

There have been “almosts,” too: an overtime setback to Edward Little, and a two-goal loss to Oxford Hills.

“Even the games we’ve lost, we competed in spans,” White said. “

With three games remaining on the schedule, finishing with eight wins is mathematically out of the question. But there’s still the prospect of seven.

And that would be six more than each of the last four years combined.