All season, Charleston men's soccer coach Chris Grassie couldn't help but wonder what his team could look like once everyone was healthy and the Golden Eagles started to click on all cylinders.
A few games into the postseason and he's starting to realize that this UC team may be better than even he imagined when the season began.
"We're starting to find that fifth gear and really hitting that stride and looking good right now," Grassie said. "I feel like the last three games, we've started to see the real UC, which is excellent."
UC will have a chance to win a third consecutive Atlantic regional crown on Thursday, and standing in its way will be a very familiar foe in Urbana. The two teams have already met three times this season, the most recent coming in the form of a 2-1 Charleston victory in the Mountain East Conference championship game.
The fourth meeting between the teams comes at 10 a.m. Thursday in Brookville, New York.
Grassie is confident that his team, which has won two of the three meetings against the Blue Knights this year, is plenty capable of coming away with another win. But he did admit that it becomes difficult when you play a team so many times. After a while, they could start to gain a better understanding of the game plan and find ways to exploit it.
"There's a balance you have to find. We don't have to worry about our confidence as much, but we have to worry about complacency," Grassie said. "One of the things about being in a setting like this in the NCAA tournament is that the guys know what's at stake and they won't be complacent.
"We've gone all this way and they don't want to go home and have it end yet."
Urbana is the No. 3 seed in the region and advanced after opening the tournament with a 2-0 victory over second-seeded Mercyhurst thanks to a pair of goals from Lewis Dunne. Meanwhile, UC started its run with a 2-0 win against West Chester.
The Golden Eagles got goals from Will Roberts and Patrick Guier to clinch their sixth victory in a row. UC hasn't lost since dropping a 1-0 decision to Urbana on Oct. 12.
"We have Urbana in front of us now, so the objective is to beat them. We feel confident - we've beaten them twice, we had a better record in the conference, and we feel like we are the better team," Grassie said. "Now we just have to go out and approach this like we would any game and try to advance again."
As they head deeper into the postseason, the team is aware that the margin of error grows slimmer every time they step out on the pitch.
But, with what the Golden Eagles have started to show in the last few games as the pressure has been on, Grassie has grown more optimistic that this group could be primed for another deep run.
"It makes me very hopeful because we're showing that we're capable of winning the whole thing," Grassie said. "Obviously, we aren't guaranteed of that and we have to take it a game at a time, and it starts with this next one.
"We have to make sure we're getting the best out of them. We know we have a lot of depth, a lot of guys who can come in and make good things happen for us. In games like this, you have to be able to find the ones who can change the game and make those plays when we need them, and we're hopeful we have those players."
Contact Michael Carvelli at 304-348-4810 or michael.carvelli@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @carvelli3.