After winning the NCAA women’s soccer championship last season, Santa Clara is back for more.

This time, on home turf.

Unseeded Santa Clara (15-5-2) will face West Coast Conference rival and No. 4 seed Brigham Young (17-4-1) in a national semifinal at 6:30 p.m. on Friday.

Florida State and Rutgers, both top seeds, will meet in the other College Cup semifinal at SCU, Friday at 4 p.m.

The winners advance to the final, which was scheduled for Sunday at 5 p.m. but will be moved to Monday if BYU advances so the Mormon university can observe the sabbath.

In a show of WCC power, both BYU and Santa Clara took down No. 1 seeds on the road to get here.

“We think the WCC is an awesome women’s soccer conference,” Santa Clara coach Jerry Smith said, “and I hope winner of our game goes on to win the national championship to just put an exclamation point on just how good the WCC is.”

Last season, the 11th-seeded Broncos earned their second NCAA title and first one since 2001 with a 4-1 shocker over Florida State in penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw in May, in a shortened and delayed season due to the COVID pandemic.

Now the Broncos are back quickly and buoyed by a nine-game win streak in the NCAA tourney.

“When we won the championship in ’01, we got back to the final in ’02, so there’s something about winning the championship that gives your team a lot of confidence,” Smith said.

The Broncos, 8-0-1 at home the season, upset top seed Duke 2-1 in the quarterfinals, courtesy of first-half goals by offensive stalwarts Izzy D’Aquila and Kelsey Turnbow. BYU clinched its first trip to the College Cup with a 4-1 win over South Carolina.

Smith’s team beat BYU, the highest-scoring team in the country with 77 goals, 1-0 on Oct. 30 on a goal by Turnbow in the 74th minute and two clutch saves by goalkeeper Kylie Foutch late. Smith describes the Cougars as the best team he faced all season.

BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood said the Cougars are looking forward to Friday’s rematch.

“You don’t think you’re gonna get (a rematch) at a game of this magnitude, but we’ll take it,” she said. “Obviously, they’re a very talented team, defending national champions. They’ve got a lot of weapons.”

Should Santa Clara get past BYU, it could face another familiar foe in Florida State, giving the Seminoles a chance to avenge last year’s championship loss.

Smith described the regular season for his team as a “bit rocky,” in part because of the short time between seasons. After finishing in May, they started up again in July, got their championship rings and watches in October and were still doing celebrations in November.

“Obviously we love celebrating, but it was a distraction for this current season, not to mention you’ve got a big target on your back, not to mention we played a tough schedule mostly on the road. I kind of think that made us stronger,” he said.

Here’s a look at the College Cup teams:

Santa Clara

Senior F Kelsey Turnbow, who leads the Broncos with 11 goals, 12 assists, and 34 points, has been named a MAC Hermann Award semifinalist. Senior M Alex Loera and Turnbow were first-team All-West Regional selections. The Broncos topped Wisconsin 2-1 in the third round despite playing down a player the final 29 minutes. SCU has been to 31 NCAA Tournaments, 11 College Cups and won national championships in 2001 and 2020. Three of SCU’s losses this season have come against No. 3 Virginia, No. 4 UCLA and Stanford. Coach Jerry Smith has 523 career wins, third most in Division I history.

BYU

The Cougars blew out South Carolina 4-1 in the quarterfinals before a sold-out home crowd. All-American Mikayla Colohan (18 goals, 15 assists) and Cameron Tucker (16 goals) top the deep team. The Cougars and Santa Clara were co-WCC champs, but SCU got the automatic NCAA bid by virtue of a 1-0 win over BYU. The Cougars are just 3-9-5 all-time against SCU, but last season, the Cougars prevailed 2-1. Tucker had the winning goal in the 57th minute.

Florida State

No. 1 FSU outscored opponents 65-13, winning an eighth ACC championship. Holding midfielder Jaelin Howell and center back Emily Madril were named MAC Hermann Trophy semifinalists. Howell is the reigning MAC Hermann winner. The duo helped the FSU backline work 12 shutouts in 23 games and allow just 13 goals overall.

Rutgers

Head coach Mike O’Neill guided the Scarlet Knights to their first Big Ten Conference title, 10th straight NCAA Tournament appearance and first College Cup. Four players were named to the All-North Region first team: Amirah Ali, Gabby Provenzano, freshman Riley Tiernan, and Frankie Tagliaferri; and GK Megan McLeland made the third team. The No. 5 Scarlet Knights beat No. 7 Arkansas 4-2 in a shootout after a 2-2 draw in the quarterfinals.