LOS ANGELES – Jillian Ellis has a craving for the waffles at Aunt Sonya's restaurant. And no trip back to Champaign would be complete for the original architect of the Illinois women's soccer program without a stop at Cafe Kopi.

Sorry, Coach, but only half of your palate-pleasing dining plans for this weekend can be satisfied. Aunt Sonya's is no more, closing its doors for good in 2005.

But like the enduring Cafe Kopi, you'll still find plenty of familiar landmarks – and faces – when your No. 9 UCLA Bruins visit campus for the Illini Challenge Cup.

Your one-time neighbors and perhaps Champaign biggest boosters – Don and Marylin Karr – still live on Halifax Drive. Your one-time immediate superior and invaluable helpmate in starting a soccer program from scratch – Dana Brenner – still works in the UI athletic department. And Linda Michael – who kept your Bielfeldt Building soccer office running so smoothly and earned the affectionate nickname of Mama Sweet Pea – might be retired but she's still a regular at UI sporting events.

"I'm really excited," Ellis said. "There's so many reasons why. It's the game, the competition. But to see the people and return to where it all began for me, it's going to be very rewarding for me to come back. Some good friends I made there."

Certainly, much has changed, too, since Ellis left Champaign and the UI more than 10 years ago. Especially with her old team.

The Illini now play their home games at a $1.2 million facility that opened for business months after she left for the West Coast in 1999.

"That whole athletic park (on the south campus) when I was there, it was just drawings or a dream," Ellis said. "So to see it come around is pretty cool."

Then there's the fledging UI program she started with a roster comprised primarily of former club team members.

She'll now see first-hand a program that's matured into a perennial national power with eight NCAA tournament appearances since 2000.

"It's great to see the commitment that they've made to the program," Ellis said, "and obviously it's now one of the best programs."

Roots to success

The same can be said of Ellis' current program. By any measure, the Bruins have attained and sustained an elite status under the former UI coach.

"Seven Final Four appearances – it's kind of hard to argue with that," Illini coach Janet Rayfield said.

In fact, the Bruins have reached the NCAA College Cup – the name college soccer gives its Final Four – each of the last six years. Three times on Ellis' watch, UCLA has played for the national championship, most recently in 2005. In 10-plus seasons as Bruins coach, her teams have won 80.2 percent of their games.

Ellis' reputation is such that USA Soccer has called upon her multiple times to coach various national teams in international tournaments. In 2008, she served as an assistant with the gold-medal U.S. Olympic team in Beijing.

"I definitely respect what she's done at the college level, and even at the international level," Rayfield said.

To Ellis, such success had its roots in Champaign during her two years at the Illini helm. It was her first opportunity to be a head coach following nine years as an assistant in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

"Illinois took a chance on me, and in so many ways I'm grateful they gave me the opportunity," she said. "Until you're a head coach, you really don't appreciate or understand what it is to be a leader."

The opportunity at the UI came with the added challenge of building a new program. Then there was this complication: The timing of Ellis' hiring occurred too late to line up a recruiting class for the UI's inaugural 1997 season, forcing the new coach to recruit players from the UI club team to play intercollegiate varsity soccer. Somehow, Ellis coaxed four wins out of that group. In the process, their first-year coach gained a lasting appreciation for a team that she continues to reference in talks with her Bruins squads.

"Those kids at Illinois were just crying out for soccer at the university," Ellis said. "They were excited to come be a part of something. They genuinely appreciated the opportunity to put on their jersey for their university. You could see the pride, the work ethic, all those intangibles.

"I think sometimes as you go through this, you get players where ... (the opportunity) becomes more of a routine and not special. Some of the qualities that those players had at Illinois, we had to instill in some of the players that were here."

There were plenty of teachable moments, too, for Ellis during her time at Illinois. Just as it was for her players, virtually everything was a first for the first-year head coach.

"The experience of getting something off the ground, it's something that's one of a kind," Ellis said. "It was a very unique time for me, becoming a leader and putting the pieces together and building.

"I honestly think without Illinois I would not be where I am at this point with UCLA. The groundwork I put in at Illinois definitely helped me when I was coming here – with everything from confidence to strategy to learning from my mistakes. All those things served me down the line."

Return engagement

The groundwork for an Illinois-UCLA game in Champaign was laid earlier this decade, when the school's coaches agreed to a home-and-home series. Rayfield took her 2007 team to Los Angeles, where a then-No. 6 Bruins team prevailed 4-2.

On Friday, the Bruins return the trip to face the 11th-ranked Illini. It's a series, Rayfield says, that would make sense even without the added attraction of Ellis' ties to the UI.

"Both programs are programs that like to recruit nationally, and so for us to go out and play on the West Coast is great," Rayfield said. "I think for them to come here and play in the Midwest – they have a couple of Midwest kids on their roster – I think it makes sense."

It should be a telling early season matchup for both. Under Rayfield, Illinois has established itself as one of the nation's top defensive teams but is coming off a season in which it struggled to finish scoring opportunities. This Illini team is eager to show it's made progress in that area, and a strong offensive game against a team the caliber of UCLA would be particularly meaningful.

Meanwhile, UCLA is eager to get on track following a 1-1-1 start that began with a 7-2 blowout loss at defending national champion North Carolina. The Bruins were without their No. 1 goalkeeper in that game,

"I think they had some defensive issues that will be solved certainly by the time they arrive here this week," Rayfield said.

Will there be future Illinois-UCLA matchups? Nothing's definite, but both coaches sound agreeable to renewing the series at some point.

"A lot of it, honestly, is you want to try and schedule your friends, and I've known Janet for a long time," Ellis said.

"We're always trying to continue to test ourselves against the best," Rayfield said. "I think it's good for both of us."