The Chattanooga Football Club had to scratch and claw its way to a pair of 2-0 wins over Nashville FC during the regular season.
To continue its pursuit of a national final, CFC will have to win a third matchup with the familiar rival.
CFC (12-2-1, 8-1-1) will host Nashville at 7:30 tonight at Finley Stadium in the semifinals of the National Premier Soccer League Southeast Conference playoffs. The Georgia Revolution travel to face the Atlanta Silverbacks Reserves in the other semifinal.
The conference championship match is at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Finley.
The Chattanooga FC women (0-3-3), the fourth seed in the Women's Premier Soccer League Southeast Conference, play the Knoxville Force (5-0-1) in a semifinal at 7 tonight at the Sansom Sports Complex in Knoxville. The Lady Force beat Chattanooga by a combined score of 10-1 in two regular-season meetings.
The CFC men needed the second of their two wins over Nashville, a 2-0 home victory last weekend, to secure the top seed in the conference playoffs, edging the Reserves by a 25-24 margin in points.
"Tonight was an important match for us. We really wanted to host the playoffs and knew that was on the line tonight," CFC coach Bill Elliott said after last week's win. "The boys were focused. Give them credit for doing the job. Nashville is tough; they're solid defensively and caused us problems."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.