Surprise, Surprise - the three top seeds who survived the first round (sorry, UCLA), Florida State, BYU, and Clemson, will compete in the College Cup alongside two-seed Stanford. Clemson knocked out two-seed Penn State 2-1, and Florida State beat fellow ACC team and under-dog Pitt 3-0. The real thrillers were BYU vs. three-seed UNC and Stanford vs five-seed Nebraska.

Stanford led 1-0 until Nebraska evened it up with three minutes remaining on the clock. Nebraska had a magical season and ended Stanford's streak of 470 minutes without allowing a goal. Four minutes into overtime, Stanford's Maya Dom put the Cardinal in front. Stanford won 2-1 and will return to the College Cup for the first time since 2019, when they won it all. The BYU and UNC game was even more dramatic. Down 0-3 within 20 minutes of the start, the BYU Cougars clawed their way back beginning in the 61st minute. In the 81st minute, BYU scored to come within one, and the equalizer came 1 minute later. Almost unthinkably, BYU took the lead in the 89th minute, winning 4-3 and going to the College Cup for the second time in program history.