Annie Kingman flew home earlier this week, but she’s not staying with her parents in Woodside.

This is a business trip.

The 20-year-old is a junior attacking center midfielder at North Carolina, which seeks its 22nd NCAA women’s soccer championship over the weekend. It just so happens the College Cup is being held this year at Avaya Stadium, home to the San Jose Earthquakes and located 12 miles south of where Kingman played four years of varsity soccer at St. Francis High in Mountain View.

“I guess it kind of hasn’t really set in totally,” Kingman told The Daily News over the phone Wednesday, after arriving in the Bay Area just 24 hours earlier. “It will hit me every once in a while, like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m here playing for a College Cup and this could be my chance to win the national championship that I’ve dreamed about every since I first committed to UNC.’ But I think it’s important for us to stay composed as a team and treat it like just any other game. We’ve had to fight for every win this season, because we are a team with a lot of heart.”

The No. 6-ranked Tar Heels (17-3-4), making their first appearance in the College Cup since 2012, will play in Friday’s first semifinal at 2 p.m. against No. 1 West Virginia (22-1-2).

Someone keeping close tabs on the progress of UNC during the playoffs was Dawn Hill, the girls soccer coach at St. Francis.

“I know we’re all pretty excited at St. Francis,” said Hill, who will be in attendance Friday and plans to bring the entire Lancers team to Sunday’s championship game. “Me and Annie exchanged texts after the ACC Tournament, and I said in a text, ‘Seems like you guys are peaking at the right time. You do know that the Final Four would be a homecoming?’ And she’s like, ‘I know.’ So throughout the playoffs I never texted her because I didn’t really want to jinx anything for UNC.

“And I really, really knew that my only chance of seeing her play would be if they made it to the Final Four.”

Kingman doesn’t take her own personal fan base for granted.

“It definitely boosts me, because it’s great to have support,” she said. “And I want to show all the people I left back home a couple of years ago when I went to North Carolina what we’ve been working on and why our team is so special.”

At 5 feet, 8 inches, Kingman is a force to be reckoned with on the pitch.

As a true freshman, she eventually elevated herself into the starting lineup during the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

“Everyone fights tooth and nail to try to make each other better, but we also want to win that playing time,” said Kingman, who scored twice and added three assists on the opening weekend of her sophomore season. “So it’s kind of nonstop competing at North Carolina.”

Currently, she is tied for second on the team with five goals — three of them game-winners — and leads the Tar Heels with eight assists, while taking the most corner kicks of any player on the roster.

“Right now she is my most technical player,” UNC coach Anson Dorrance is quoted as saying on her bio. “If we win the ball and Annie Kingman is unmarked then we want to give her the ball. Her decisions on the ball are among the best on the team. I just love the way she plays.”

It’s her ability to read the game that stands out.

At St. Francis, she finished with 60 goals and 33 assists during her four years, including a sizzling junior season in which she netted 24 goals and added 14 assists.

Her only Central Coast Section championship came as a freshman in 2011, which taught Kingman how to appreciate the opportunity in front of her this weekend.

“My sophomore, junior and senior years at St. Francis, we had such skillful and talented teams, but we just never got it done,” Kingman said. “We got close a lot of times, but it just felt like we were missing that last piece. I know it’s so hard to win a championship. It’s going to take a lot of effort, a lot of skill, a lot of talent, but also, as with anything, it’s going to take a little bit of luck.

“And I think we’ve had luck on our side so far in this tournament.”

In a near twist of fate, there was an outside shot at Kingman being forced to play against younger sister Georgia, a freshman defensive midfielder at UNLV, in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

“I was kind of torn with it,” Kingman said. “I was thinking about it, and playing against Georgia is always hard because she knows me better than I know myself. … That would have been an emotional game, for sure.”

UNLV, placed in the same bracket as the Tar Heels, lost in the opening round 2-0 to BYU.

Another trio of former Lancers came within one victory of reaching the College Cup, with goalkeeper Courtney Ogren along with midfielders DB Pridham and Megan Keeth on the roster at Santa Clara, which upset No. 1 seed Stanford in double overtime during the second round before being eliminated in last week’s quarterfinals.

“Wow, four people in the Final Four, that would be crazy,” Hill said. “But I’m just excited to have one. We’re definitely spoiled.”