LYNNWOOD — It might be a bit of an overstatement to say that last year’s state quarterfinal loss to Mercer Island is seared into the memory of the Meadowdale girls soccer team.

But the heartbreaking 1-0 defeat, which was played before a home crowd at Edmonds Stadium, is in some ways a focal point for the returning Mavericks, many of whom either played or witnessed the mid-November contest.

“It’s definitely a game we should have won,” said senior midfielder Brittany Doran. “We just had an off day and couldn’t put it in the net … we look at it as we’d like to get back in that situation because we know we can do it (win).”

Senior midfielder Jessica Duty remembers how she felt at the end of the game. And she’s using her recollections to fuel another run at the state tournament.

“We know where we want to be now. We know what it takes to do it and we know we can do it,” Duty said. “It (loss) makes me more hungry.”

Meadowdale certainly appears to have the personnel to make another strong run at the postseason. The Mavericks only graduated two full-time and one part-time starter, which means that the experience level of the returning players is as high as it’s ever been in the program.

“We have a really strong and pretty big core group, which is different than past years,” Duty said.

Key returners included defenders Courtney Craig and Alexandra Dunsdon and midfielders Brooke Simons and Amanda Sanquinet. Sophomore Laura Gifford gives the Mavericks good speed up front.

“Most of the girls have been playing on varsity since at least their sophomore year,” Doran said. “Most of them came up sophomore year, so we’ve got a lot of experience on the field. It really shows … the girls know how to handle the games and they know what to do before the games. They know how to warm up and that helps a lot with the younger girls.”

The high number of returning players, however, hasn’t prevented second-year coach Sean Griffin from making some changes in the lineup in order to find the best combination to put out on the field.

Griffin acknowledges he’s done some experimenting in the Mavericks’ first two non-league games, which were both losses. He decided to put senior Stephanie Fry back in the defense in a position she had never played before. By the second game, Fry had figured out the position and was playing well, according to Griffin.

“I have shifted some things around,” he said. “So there still are some differences and they’re still learning to adjust.”

One big change for Meadowdale is at goalkeeper, which was in a state of flux last week. Junior Brooke Horman suffered a severely sprained thumb and was expected to be out for about week. Another keeper broke her nose during tryouts.

As a result, the Mavericks threw in a couple of field players in goal, which may have made a difference in the loss to Bellingham.

Griffin nevertheless isn’t worried about the two losses, while acknowledging that Meadowdale hasn’t played that well so far.

“We started off really slowly last year too,” Griffin said. “Here we’ve been thumped by two teams but we’ve learned a lot about ourselves. As a coach I’ve seen an awful lot of stuff, so I have a much better idea of what we need to work on.”

Teams in the Western Conference 4A South Division have an advantage in that they have six preseason contests, while their Northern counterparts start right off in league play.

“We’re slowly putting some things together,” Griffin said. “I’m not too concerned. I figure if we look bad in the preseason games that will help us look better when we play somebody that counts.”

Meadowdale faces the same opponents during the regular season but should the Mavericks reach the postseason they will be going up against 4A competition instead of 3A as was the case last season.

The road to the state tournament is going to be difficult for all but one team in the division. The Wesco South Division champion automatically earns a state berth but everyone else has to play off.

“I have some pretty high hopes,” Griffin said. “It’s going to be a real challenge for us to make the playoffs this year … but I think we’re up for it.”