Telegraph photo by TOM KING Souhegan's Sam Goddard, shown during the Divison II team quarterfinals, captured the state individual singles title.

For the second straight year, Souhegan High School has a boys state singles tennis champion.

Junior Sam Goddard captured the crown Tuesday, topping Bedford’s No. 1 seed Jason Boucher, 6-1, 6-4 at Pinkerton Academy.

Goddard, who entered the tourney as the third seed, followed in the footsteps of Matt Lapsley, who won the title as a Saber senior last year.

He finished a superb season as the Sabers No. 1 singles player, and in the individual tourney also topped No. 2 seed Pinkerton’s Seb Tonini in a tough semifinal battle, 1-6, 6-4, and 10-4 in the tiebreaker. He also beat Portsmouth’s Ryan Porter, Dover’s Max Casey, and Concord’s Liam Grennon (quarters) en route to the crown.

He and his brother, Saber freshman Josh, are set to play in the boys doubles semis against Alvirne’s freshman brother tandem of Peyton and Ashton Meuse today at 3 p.m. at Pinkerton Academy. The winner advances to the finals later in the day. The Meuses are seeded second while the Goddards are No. 8.

In the girls singles finals, Bishop Guertin

‘s Amy Maalouf made quite a run before falling to top seed Bedford’s Carley Citron, 6-2, 6-0. Like Goddard, Maalouf, seeded second in the tourney, also had a tough semifinal, beating fellow local Leann Grosso of Merrimack, who was the sixth seed, in a 10-6 tiebreaker after splitting the first two sets, 6-3, 3-6.

Maalouf also bested Guertin teammate Katelyn Nichols in the quarters 8-1, Pinkerton’s Chloe Freedman 8-5 and Bow’s Olivia Parzick 8-3in the earlier rounds.

Maalouf will now turn to today’s doubles semifinals, as she teams with fellow Cardinal Hannah Gilbertson as the No. 2 seed against Derryfield’s third seeded duo of Emma Place/Abi Leonardi.

But that isn’t the only local doubles team still alive. Nashua South’s fourth-seeded team of Kaitlin Fitzgibbons and Meghana Avvaru will square off in the other semi against Bedford’s No. 1 seeded tandem of Citron and Taylor Suozzo.

Like the boys doubles, the girls doubles semis begin at 3 p.m. at Pinkerton with the finals to follow.

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