I d use DbUnit and the DbUnit Maven Plugin for that. You can use it to Clear database and insert a dataset before test phase and/or to setup data for each test cases (see the Getting Started for JUnit 3, see this blog post for example for JUnit 4).

Another option would be to use the SQL Maven Plugin. The examples section has a configuration that shows how to drop/create a database and schema, then populate it before the test phase, and drop the database after the test phase).

The later approach gives you less control on data setup between tests which is why I prefer DbUnit.

I add the folowing to pom.

<build>
        <extensions>
            <extension>
                <groupId>hsqldb</groupId>
                <artifactId>hsqldb</artifactId>
                <version>1.8.0.7</version>
            </extension>
            <extension>
                <groupId>log4j</groupId>
                <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
                <version>1.2.14</version>
            </extension>
        </extensions>

        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.5</source>
                    <target>1.5</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>

            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                <artifactId>hibernate3-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.0</version>

                <configuration>
                    <components>
                        <component>
                            <name>hbm2java</name>
                            <implementation>annotationconfiguration</implementation>
                            <outputDirectory>/src/main/java</outputDirectory>
                        </component>

                    </components>
                    <componentProperties>
                        <jdk5>true</jdk5>
                        <export>false</export>
                        <drop>true</drop>
                        <outputfilename>schema.sql</outputfilename>
                    </componentProperties>
                </configuration>

                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>generate-ddl</id>
                        <phase>process-classes</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <!--Genera Esquema-->
                            <goal>hbm2ddl</goal>
                            <!--Genera Clases -->
                        <!-- <goal>hbm2java</goal>  -->

                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>



            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                <artifactId>sql-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.0</version>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>create-schema</id>
                        <phase>process-test-resources</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>execute</goal>
                        </goals>
                        <configuration>
                            <autocommit>true</autocommit>
                            <srcFiles>
                                <srcFile>target/hibernate3/sql/schema.sql</srcFile>
                            </srcFiles>
                        </configuration>
                    </execution>


                    <execution>
                        <id>drop-db-after-test</id>
                        <phase>test</phase>
                            <goals>
                                <goal>execute</goal>
                            </goals>
                            <configuration>
                                <autocommit>true</autocommit>
                                <sqlCommand>DROP SCHEMA public CASCADE</sqlCommand>
                            </configuration>
                        </execution>
                    </executions>

                    <dependencies>
                        <dependency>
                            <groupId>hsqldb</groupId>
                            <artifactId>hsqldb</artifactId>
                            <version>1.8.0.7</version>
                        </dependency>
                    </dependencies>

                    <configuration>
                        <driver>org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver</driver>
                        <username>sa</username>
                        <password></password>
                        <url>jdbc:hsqldb:file:etc/out/test.db;shutdown=true</url>
                        <autocommit>true</autocommit>
                        <skip>${maven.test.skip}</skip>
                    </configuration>
                </plugin>

            </plugins>
        </build>

and the folowing to my datasource:

<bean id="dataSource" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource" lazy-init="true"
    destroy-method="close">
 <property name="driverClassName" value="org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver" />

 <property name="url" value="jdbc:hsqldb:file:etc/out/test.db;shutdown=true" />


    <property name="username" value="sa" />
    <property name="password" value="" />
</bean>

We do that with Maven under Hudson, with a profile that triggers the maven-antrun-plugin in the process-test-resources phase. In our case the maven-antrun-plugin runs a Java class that generates the schema, but of course there are other options. It looks like this:

    <profile>
        <id>dev</id>
        <build>
            <plugins>
                <plugin>
                    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                    <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
                    <executions>
                        <execution>
                            <id>generate-database-schema-new</id>
                            <phase>process-test-resources</phase>
                            <configuration>
                                <tasks>
                                    ...
                                </tasks>
                            </configuration>
                            <goals>
                                <goal>run</goal>
                            </goals>
                        </execution>
                    </executions>
                </plugin>
            </plugins>
        </build>
    </profile>