When the second NCAA Division I women’s semifinal unfolds on Friday evening at Gillette Stadium, all eyes will be on the Navy Midshipmen.

It’s understandable, too, given their Cinderella run – one that includes downing North Carolina, the defending national champion – and that Cindy Timchal, a legendary coach, is at their helm.

But their opponent, Boston College, has a message for the college lacrosse world: Don’t forget about us.

“I think we’ve been overlooked a lot in years past and this year, so this is not an unfamiliar feeling by any means,” said head coach Acacia Walker after her team’s practice Tuesday night at Harvard Stadium, all in preparation of the bright lights in Foxborough, Mass. “But you get to the Final Four and everyone is really good, so we’re expecting a huge battle on Friday night with Navy.”

It’s not as though BC, Walker said, feels slighted by any means, but this moment is similarly historic for her group.

Yes, it’s Navy’s first appearance in the Final Four, but it’s also the Eagles first appearance in the Final Four. They’re also the last ACC team standing, when the likes of UNC, Syracuse and Duke are typically still in contention this time of year.

But, in their path to Gillette, the Eagles kept quiet Canisius in the Round of 16, only to then upset Syracuse and dispel a tough University of Southern California side.

“This moment is really pumping up our team and getting us fired up to do something that our program has never done before,” said Elizabeth Miller, who was recently named a IWLCA second-team All-American. “That was our whole goal going into this season, to do something that BC hasn’t done before. We want to take it even further than we already have. It’s our fire.”

While the Eagles carry an extra dose of motivation, their ever-constant phrase this week is “staying grounded,” something that Kate Weeks, their second-leading scorer with 98 points, spoke at length about.

That phrase was echoed by Kaileen Hart, the owner of 71 points on the year, who added that the Eagles have had to overcome their fair share of adversity in 2017.

Chief among them was losing Tess Chandler, a two-year captain, to a season-ending injury on Feb. 15 against Boston University. Then there were comprehensive, early-season defeats at the hands of Syracuse, Maryland and Virginia Tech, giving the Eagles a 6-3 record early on. And, perhaps most significantly of all, Kenzie Kent, also a star on Boston College’s women’s hockey team, didn’t make her first appearance until March 29 against Yale.

“It’s one of the things we pride ourselves in, handling adversity,” Hart said. “We do in Boston as a city, and we play in the coldest weather. We’re not used to the heat when we play in it.

“Take our Virginia game, there was a blizzard happening,” Hart added. “We took that and made it our motto – the storm was called Theseus – to beat Theseus. We just played in the snow and take pride in how we can play in whatever weather. The ups and downs, we can handle it and conquer them.”

PHOTO COURTESY BOSTON COLLEGE ATHLETICS

Walker went a step further, saying that what’s so unique about her squad this year is how they’ve gelled off the field, a fact that’s only translated onto the field.

It explains why Zoe Ochoa and Lauren Daly are so comfortable splitting time in goal. It also explains why they’ve kept teams to 10 goals or fewer on eight occasions this year. And, last but not least, why someone like Sam Apuzzo, a IWLCA First-Team All-American, has exploded for 111 points so far.

So when it comes to this 2017 Eagles team, Weeks said a cliche is true: They’re all in this together.

“What I always say is I want another week with my friends, another week with these girls,” Weeks said. “There’s a lot of emotion in our team, a good emotion in that we’re so close. It’s cliche to say, but our team is actually really good friends. It adds so much into the fight of wanting another week, another game.”

BC has just that this weekend against Navy, and it’ll be in a unique spot as a quasi-home team. In fact, the Eagles, per NCAA rules, shipped from their campus in Newton, Massachusetts to a hotel in Boston, making their short bus ride to Gillette a few miles longer.

It’s something BC has embraced, though, Walker said, because her team loves away trips and is playing virtually in its backyard. The Eagles also have plenty of local flavor, with 11 of their players calling New England home.

BC’s focus, however, lies elsewhere.

Should the Eagles win Friday night, they’ll play in the national title game against either Penn State or Maryland, two top-ranked squads. From that, Walker said BC isn’t content with the history it’s already made.

Instead, it wants to keep on going, even if the Eagles are being overlooked some.

“They all came to BC to do something special,” Walker said. “Everyone coming in is coming to BC for the same reason. Yeah, we’ve never been to a Final Four, but our job is certainly not done. We won’t be satisfied with this, which I think a lot of people probably think we will be. We won’t. We’re here, so we want to win.”

Added Hart: “We’re taking the underdog role in. Now that we’ve accepted that, we have to act like we’ve been here before and strap on our boots and play like the other teams.”