As a redshirt freshman in 2015, Tanner Beason was invited to join the Stanford men’s soccer team on a trip to Winston-Salem, N.C., for an NCAA quarterfinal game against Wake Forest.

It was a visit to his hometown, and head coach Jeremy Gunn said Beason thought it was a “sympathy” gesture for having to sit out the season.

“No, no,” Gunn told him. “We’re bringing you here because we want you to lead the team in the future. We want you to see everything and experience it all, so you’ll be front and center in the future.”

The Cardinal won their first of three straight NCAA championships that year as Beason served as an understudy to All-America left back Brandon Vincent.

Beason thinks all the sitting and watching paid off. Three years later, he’s not only the team’s captain but the Pac-12 Player of the Year, Defender of the Year and one of 15 semifinals for the Hermann Trophy as the best college player in America.

And Stanford is one game away from its fourth straight trip to the College Cup, the sport’s Final Four. The ninth-seeded Cardinal (12-3-5) host Akron (13-6-2) at 6 p.m. Friday. The Zips defeated No. 1 seed Wake Forest 1-0 on Sunday.

NCAA men’s soccer tournament Quarterfinals Friday: Akron (13-6-2) at Stanford (12-3-5), 6 p.m. (P12Net); Maryland (10-6-4) at Kentucky (19-1-1), 3 p.m.; Notre Dame (11-6-3) at Indiana (19-2-1), 4 p.m. Saturday: James Madison (15-4-3) at Michigan State (13-4-4), 2 p.m. Note: Winners advance to College Cup Dec. 7-9 in Santa Barbara.

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Last season Stanford became the first Division I school to win national titles in men’s and women’s soccer in the same year. Now both Cardinal teams are trying to do it again.

Despite returning just four starters this year, the men hope to become the second program to win four straight national titles; Virginia did it in 1991-94.

Beason was recruited as a left back and played there for two years. “We wanted to get his personality in a more central role, so we took the gamble of moving him to left center back,” Gunn said. “He’s repaid us tenfold with a stellar year.”

Beason anchored a defense that posted 13 shutouts, 11 of them around redshirt freshman goalkeeper Andrew Thomas.

“There’s obviously a little bit of fortune in those moments where things bounce your way or hit the post,” Beason said, “but you don’t have luck like that for so long without it being from your own preparation. I think it’s just diligence.

“It’s not something I would credit to just the keeper or the back four. I think our team does a very good job, and has for the last couple of years, of defending as a group. Midfielders and forwards are helping to get this group those clean sheets.”

Beason’s father, Stewart, was a goalkeeper at Virginia Tech. “He never wanted me to be a keeper,” Beason said. “He knew the wear it had taken on his body, so he wanted me to play something else.”

While Stanford owns a postseason shutout streak of 14 matches, he has a streak of his own. He’s nine-for-nine on penalty kicks in his college career. He says his last miss was during his junior season in high school.

Briefly: Akron has 16 players from 11 foreign countries, including leading scorer David Egbo (12 goals, five assists) of Nigeria. … The Zips won their only national championship in 2010. … Stanford played Akron twice in the national semifinals the previous three years. The Cardinal won a shootout after a scoreless tie in 2015. Last year Stanford won 2-0. … Stanford has played five scoreless draws over the past four postseasons and won on penalties each time, most recently against St. Mary’s on Sunday.

Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgerald