There is only one Carli Lloyd, the newly minted finalist for FIFA's Ballon d'Or and at the moment, with apologies to Alexi Lalas, the highest profile soccer alumnus of Rutgers University.

Yet as Rutgers travels to its first College Cup with 22 players who are from the state of New Jersey, equaling the number of homegrown products for semifinalists Duke, Florida State and Penn State combined, the program's ongoing breakthrough season is rooted in a lot of young women who followed in her footsteps by not following the New Jersey Turnpike south to programs of more familiar pedigree.

Big Ten defender of the year Erica Skroski didn't grow up aspiring to play for Rutgers, but the school's size and proximity to home proved more and more appealing. AP Photo/Mel Evans

In a year in which Lloyd's performances on the world stage reiterated, with emphasis, the talent her home state has long produced, the state university is showing what it can do when some of the talent stays home.

"We kind of have this edge to us, all of us," said senior Erica Skroski, the Big Ten defender of the year and a product of Galloway, New Jersey. "It's just so cool that so many of us are from Jersey because if you look at the final four year after year, there are a lot of the same schools that are going to the College Cup. It's like their standard at that school. But for us, a bunch of New Jersey girls to go to basically Jersey's school and be able to bring that program to the Cup for the first time, and being the girls that are creating that standard, is just an awesome feeling."

New Jersey has been fertile recruiting ground for about as long as there has been a women's game. In addition to Lloyd, the U.S. team that won the World Cup included Garden State natives Tobin Heath, Heather O'Reilly and Christie Rampone. Danielle Colaprico, another native, is with the national team at the moment after playing in two College Cups for Virginia and being named the National Women's Soccer League's top rookie with the Chicago Red Stars. But with the exception of Lloyd and Rampone, who played at Monmouth in the 1990s, most of the state's most recognizable products left home, often for programs like those in Cary this week.

Despite sponsoring varsity soccer since 1984, only two years after the first NCAA tournament, Rutgers qualified for that event only three times in its first 22 seasons. Two of those appearances came when Lloyd was around more than a decade ago. Now in his second year as coach but his 15th season as part of the program, Mike O'Neill knew as well as anyone that the answer was both right in front of them and maddeningly difficult to grasp.