When one thinks of college soccer powerhouses, Virginia, UCLA, Maryland and Georgetown all come to mind.

However, one team in the ACC is quickly developing into a national heavyweight and head coach Mike Noonan is leading the charge.

Clemson is one of eight teams remaining in this year’s NCAA Tournament, and the Tigers are only one game away from reaching the College Cup — a stage of the tournament they have not been to in 10 years.

From 2007 to 2012, Clemson failed to even qualify for the postseason tournament. Noonan took over as head coach of the Tigers in 2010, and since his arrival, results have improved each and every year.

In 2013, Clemson received an at-large berth, and in 2014, the Tigers won the ACC Championship and followed that up with a run to the round of 16 during the NCAA competition.

Now, they are one step away from a feat they haven’t accomplished since 2005: reaching the College Cup. One of those iconic college powerhouses stands in their way, though.

“We’ve been building the program for the first three or four years and we’re now seeing the fruits of our labor a little bit,” Noonan told SBI ahead of the Tigers’ home battle against the Maryland Terrapins on Friday (7 p.m., ESPN3).

Noonan’s overall record against Maryland since joining Clemson in 2010 is 1-5-1. In practically all of those matches, Maryland was the heavy favorite to win.

This time around, though, the favorite is not the historic powerhouse; rather, it’s a No. 2-seeded Clemson side that has looked every bit as dominate and powerful as its seed suggests. The Tigers cruised through the difficult ACC and emerged as one of the best teams in not only the conference but the nation as a whole. The Tigers have scored eight goals in two games so far this tournament, and have scored the fourth-most goals in total this college campaign.

Those numbers are not what Clemson used to produce, not even from a year ago when the team won the conference title.

“I think last year’s team and this year’s team are comparable. This year’s team still has something to say about that because they’re still playing,” Noonan said.

“Last year’s team, we were more experienced in the back and had a little harder time going forward; this year’s team scores a lot of goals. The characteristics of both teams are different, so it’s hard to compare which one’s the best.”

“We put four guys in the MLS last year, so that’s pretty good company,” Noonan added. “It’s up to the MLS whether they take four guys out of the team this year, I don’t know. I think the teams are different, for sure.”

Despite losing four players to the professional ranks, this year’s squad arguably proved to be even better. And Clemson has another four active players that could easily join an MLS team come 2016.

MAC Hermann semifinalists Paul Clowes and Kyle Fisher are two of those players. Fisher, who was named to SBI’s Top 30 College MLS Draft Prospects in August, is one of the nation’s better defenders, proving to be reliable in the air on the defensive and offensive end.

“He’s solid all around. He’s exceptional in the air, he’s tough and gritty; he moves well,” Noonan said of Fisher. “He’s got a good range of pass to him, and I think that probably — the intangible pieces of being a winner — is something that a lot of people see in Kyle.

“He has very little fear, if any, when it comes to playing in big games or putting his body on the line to get to the ball. He can score goals with his head, and he’ll block shots. He’s the complete package.”

While Clowes, Fisher and even dynamic forward Kyle Murphy have received a bulk of the attention for their potential to develop into professional players, senior T.J. Casner has also caught the eye of scouts at the next level. Casner is having a breakout year, scoring 10 goals — including six game-winners — and providing four assists.

“He can play in a number of different places,” Noonan said of Casner. “He’s versatile, he’s skillfull, he’s two-footed, so you can play him in midfield, you can play him up front, you can play him on the left and the right. It gives us some versatility, and he’s got the ability to score goals. I think those are pretty good assets to have.

“My phone has been ringing (about him).”

Consistently producing next-level talent and annually venturing far into postseason tournaments are two major qualities a program must have in order for it to be considered an intercollegiate powerhouse. It appears as though Noonan has reached that point with Clemson, but he and the Tigers still have work to do this season.

“We really focus on what we’re trying to do with Clemson, we don’t really worry about past year’s records and other teams to be fair,” Noonan said in response to what he thinks of Maryland’s past-and-present program. “We certainly respect Maryland and their tradition and what coach (Sasho) Cirovski’s done there, but what we’ve tried to do is make Clemson the best that Clemson can be.

“We measure ourselves against ourselves,” Noonan added. “We know that our standard is the best that we can possibly be, and that’s what we try to go out and do every game, every day of training. When we recruit players, we want players who just want to get themselves better and come to a place where they can develop. We’ve been able to do that here at Clemson.

“We don’t really say, ‘well, how do we compare against Maryland, Wake Forest or UCLA,’ we just try to be Clemson.”