BYU women's soccer coach Jennifer Rockwood gets the question a lot, particularly from coaches she faces off against in the NCAA Tournament.
Why does her roster include so many players from the state of Utah? And how has she turned the Cougars into a national power with such a limited recruiting footprint?
"It has actually been amazing," Rockwood said. "We get that comment quite a bit. They are surprised at the amount of talented players from the state of Utah that we have."
Of the 32 players on BYU's current roster, no fewer than 23 played high school and/or club soccer in Utah and list Utah cities as their hometowns.
No. 6-ranked BYU (20-2-3), which is a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament, meets No. 3-ranked Stanford (19-0-4), a No. 2 seed, in the College Cup Semifinals — soccer's Final Four, basically — Friday night in Cary, North Carolina .
The semifinal match begins at 6:30 p.m. MST and will be televised by ESPNU; a couple of No. 1 seeds, Florida State and Clemson, meet at 4 p.m. in the other semifinal.
Two years ago, before BYU lost to Florida State in penalty kicks in the championship match, Rockwood remembers the introductions when nine of BYU's 11 starters were from Utah, while FSU "had a very international roster," with players from all over the world.
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Rockwood said there are two reasons for the preponderance of Utahns on her roster — BYU's connection to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the fact that girls youth soccer in the state is well-organized, popular and staffed by outstanding coaches.
"We obviously have a lot of girls that played here locally that are very good and make a good fit into our program," she said. "I would say on average, we have 70 to 75% of our team from Utah. It has just kinda always been that way."
Senior midfielder Jamie Shepherd, who is from nearby American Fork, said there is a certain closeness and unity that comes from playing with girls she has known and competed with, or against, since she was 12 years old.
"A lot of the girls on the team are from Utah, so it is a super cool feeling to be out there on the field together. You just build that chemistry," she said. "There are 11 of us seniors, and over those five years you just grow and build together through those highs and those lows and hopefully it is all coming together now."
Stanford comes in with revenge on its mind, having been ousted by the Cougars in the second round of last year's tournament on penalty kicks. The Cardinal, who are undefeated this year, with four ties, downed Nebraska 2-1 in double overtime in the Elite Eight last weekend to advance to the College Cup for the 11th time in program history.
The Cardinal has won three national championships (2011, 2017, 2019) and two second-place finishes (2009, 2010) in 10 College Cup appearances.
BYU is in only its second College Cup, which is why the Cougars are probably viewed by many as an underdog although they are seeded higher.
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"I feel like we always have a target on our back, but we are always an underdog at the same time," said Bella Folino, a senior forward/midfielder from Aliso Viejo, California. "We always have to go in and prove ourselves game after game and earn the respect of the other teams."
BYU earned a lot of respect by the way it got here, overcoming a 3-0 deficit against perennial power North Carolina with four goals in the second half last Friday night at South Field in Provo.
Folino said the Cougars enjoyed the improbable win over the weekend and then shifted gears for Stanford on Monday.
"We are going to take that confidence from North Carolina and keep building on that for Stanford," said the winner of the Elite 90 award who carries a 4.0 GPA and is working on her Master of Business Administration. "That gave us a lot of confidence, knowing that we can come back against and we can hang with those top teams in the country."
Many of BYU's players remember the feeling after dropping the final to FSU in 2021 in Santa Clara, California, and don't want to have to experience that again.
Of the 15 BYU players who participated in that championship game, eight will start against Stanford on Friday night.
No. 6 BYU (20-2-3)
vs. No. 3 Stanford (19-0-4)
Friday, 6:30 p.m. MST
WakeMed Soccer Park
Cary, North Carolina
TV:ESPNU
Radio:107.9 FM and the BYUradio app
Along with Shepherd and Folino, BYU's other top players include Brecken Mozingo, Erin Bailey, Allie Fryer, Olivia Wade-Katoa and Ellie Walbruch. Mozingo transferred from UCLA after playing locally at Alta High. She leads the team in goals (14), assists (15) and shots (83).
Winning the Cup would mean everything to the program, the players and Rockwood.
"You can't even put into words how amazing that would be," Rockwood said. "With women's soccer, our sport has been dominated so much by North Carolina and Stanford and those programs. There are not too many programs out there that have won a national championship in our sport. So to be able to break through to that caliber of a program would really be special to us."
Fans storm the field after BYU beat North Carolina during the NCAA tournament quarterfinals in Provo on Friday, Nov. 24, 2023. BYU won, 4-3, and will face Stanford in the College Cup semifinals Friday night in North Carolina. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
