As they gathered back in August, the Florida State women’s soccer players could have collectively shrugged an “Oh well, that’s the ball game’’ and changed their goal of reaching the national semifinals and winning an NCAA title.

The news was that bad.

Star forwards Jessica Price, who had 16 goals and 10 assists for a team-high 42 points in 2009, and Tiffany McCarty, who had a team-leading 17 goals and seven assists for 41 points to earn the ACC freshman of the year and ACC offensive player of the year awards, were both lost to season-ending medical issues.

“The first day, we talked about Jess and Tiff and how we felt for them,’’ coach Mark Krikorian said. “But I said, “Take a look around this room. There’s a lot of talent in this room and there’s not one team in the country that’s feeling sorry for you. So you’ve got a chance to go out and create whatever legacy you want.’’

Well, the Seminoles (16-5-1) have fashioned an impressive one, reaching the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time in program history; they meet top-seeded and No. 1 ranked Stanford (21-0-2) on Friday night in Palo Alto. The winner advances to next week’s College Cup, the final four, in Cary, N.C.

“Jessica and Tiff are very good players, however, it doesn’t take two players to make this program,’’ said midfielder Rachel Lim, one of just three seniors on the team. “It takes 11. No, it doesn’t take 11. It takes 25. It takes the whole team. It takes the coaches. It takes the staff. It takes everyone.

“We would have to deal with what we had on the field and we had to recognize that we had talent within ourselves and a lot of people need to step up in leadership roles and goal-scoring roles. Whatever role it was, everybody needed to kick it up a couple more notches.’’

They have.

Fourteen different players have scored goals, led by senior Janice Cayman’s nine, as Krikorian and his staff have relied on goalkeeper Kelsey Wys and defenders Toni Pressley, Tiana Brockway, Ines Jaurena and Kassey Kallman to shutdown opponents (FSU has allowed just 15 goals, which is seven fewer than last year), while mixing-and-match his versatile midfielders and forwards game to game.

“We knew we weren’t going to go out and beat teams 3-, 4-0,’’ Krikorian said. “We knew we’d have to grind it out a little bit. … Quite honestly, the front six continues to be a work in progress. We started Casey Short up front against South Florida (in the second round of the NCAA). We started Tori Huster up front against Marquette (in the third round). With Jess and Tiff, it was easy. We had our two strikers and (said to teams), “Good luck to you guys defending them.’ With our group this year, it’s a little bit more complex.’’

But the results have been strikingly similar.