Pelham's Maddie Cote, left, battles HB's Lauren Holt for the ball during last year's Divison II semifinals at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

When the final horn sounded during the local high school girls soccer tournament games last year, there was frustration and disappointment.

There’s a lot of determination to have that change this year.

A season coming off a Division I championship, Bishop Guertin fell in the quarterfinals to Timberlane. But perhaps the toughest defeat was suffered by Hollis Brookline in the Division II semifinals at the hands of Pelham. It was the Cavs’ second straight year falling short of the finals.

Nashua North, South, Alvirne and Merrimack will all look to push further in the tournament this year should they get there. Milford and Souhegan want to join HB with tourney success, and in Division III, Campbell is three years removed from a title game appearance.

Here’s how things shape up:

DIVISION I

The Cardinals are hoping to get back to elite status, and they weren’t that far off last year with 13 wins and fifth seed. They’ve lost scorers Brooke Paquette and Katie Boudreau to graduation, but senior Martha Lord will be counted on and the wealth may be spread.

“We lost a lot of goals,” BG coach Winston Haughton said, “but hopefully we can plug in new scorers and they can take to the field and do what the job is. There’s a lot of goals we create as a team as well as individual brilliance.”

And there are newcomers like freshman Zoe Horton, whom Haughton feels compares to Lord when she was a freshman.Arianna Kouchalakos will return to man the midfield and plays well defensively.

Defensively, the Cardinals are buoyed by seniors Alexa Peseridis and Alyson Guerette in front of returning goalie Ashlyn Guerette.

While there are about a half dozen starters back, “There are a lot of new faces, so a lot of them are new to the fight. … It’s a fresh challenge.”

Nashua North rallied late to get to five wins and make the tournament, a solid achievement. The Titans will be young, but names are familier: Sophomore twins Ali and Sarah Frye, plus seniors Kaylee Moore and Lilly Baker-Oliviera. Juniors Nora Ross and Rachel Gauthier will try to pick up in goal where the graduated leade Grace Cardin left off.

“Preseason has been positivity strong,” Titans coach Jacqueline Thompson said. “Consistency is this season’s approach. … Looking forward to the youth of this team bringing an added level of excitement to the game.”

Nashua South started strong and used that to help make the tournament, and will look to improve on a 7-10 overall mark. Again, some familiar names, including the offensive minded senior Soraya Ross, fellow senior forward Ella Benzekri, plus key juniors Ava Kopicko (midfield), Mariana Mejia (defender), and Lily Stutz (defender). The team may be strong defensively as promising newcoers Ella Bois (freshman) and Paola Pamias (junior) are both on defense.

“We have several players with varsity experience,” Panthers coach Lauren Keating said. “They’re looking to build on successes from the last few seasons.”

Merrimack was a strong team last year with 11 regular season wins, its best season in the last couple of years. Second year coach Amber Murphy wants to build on that.

“We’re training hard, and looking to build this year,” Murphy said.

Alex Therrian and Nora McMain are back at center midfield, which is where it all starts. There’s a lot of faith in sisters Danielle and Sarah Ganley to play middle to up top, while Lexi Best anchors the back line.

Alvirne has a new coach in Kayla St. Louis, and a lot of new players after graduating 11 seniors, including top scorer Paige Boudreau, the program’s career scoring leader. They’ll need to replace that scoring, and it’s possible senior forward Brianna Peters could help with that. Anna Rivera was strong defensively as a junior a year ago. A lot of players will be looking to step into new roles.

DIVISION II

If there was ever a team you had to feel for, it was the Cavaliers. They lost to Bow in OT in 2021 and then Pelham shot past them in last year’s semis.

“Our challenge is to develop the consistency needed to bring us back to the Final Four where anything can happen,” Cavs head coach Peter Clarke said.

HB stormed through the regular season winning 14 games, and Clarke says he wants the same pace, led by juniors McKenna Maguire and Lily Bouchard, plus the senior leadership of midfielders Lauren Holt and Sienna Anderson. Juniors Ellie Snoke, Zoe Kreick and Kiera King will lead the back line.

HB’s chief local rival is Milford, and the Spartans are going to try to work through the loss of 10 seniors from a 12-3-1 team.

“We still feel we can be a team that is highly competitive,” Milford coach Russ Matthews said. “We have several girls returning that saw plenty of time last year and that gives us a bit of experience.”

The Spartans have only three seniors but one of them is one of their leading scorers from last year, Alina St. George at midfield. Junior Claire Cote is another scorer back, while senior Keely Giordono will anchor the back line. Matthews is looking for good things from up and comers Lulu Maguire, Shea Hansen and Jocelyn Shaw.

The start will be tough, as Milford faces ConVal, HB and Pelham in three of their first four games.

Souhegan will look to get back into the tournament, just missing out a year ago. But they lost their best player of the last few years to graduation, forward Greta Caulton. But back Lyla Kimball was eligible to return as well as keeper Kelsey Lockitt; both will be seniors.

DIVISION III

The Cougars graduated eight from a 17-player squad that won nine regular season games but fell early in the tourney. That team had only three juniors, led by back Olivia Moreau, so Campbell will have only a handful of seniors but more juniors, key of which coud be forward Katie Soule.

DIVISION IV

Sadly, there is no local this year in the state’s smallest division as Wilton-Lyndeborough is not fielding a varsity team. Last year the program had its fourth coach in four years and the numbers finally dwindled. In the last few years WLC has lost both boys and girls tennis; volleyball disappeared several years ago. Girls basketball survived for a few years as a JV team until finally returning to varsity last winter. We’ll see what the future holds for soccer.