Ask Jeff Huth about Ella Masar and the current Illini soccer team here.

BRIDGEVIEW – Ella Masar was ready to walk away.

Soccer had been good to her. No doubt about that. The former Urbana and Illini standout lived to play it, rarely spent longer than a day without touching a ball and never let the sport stray from her thoughts.

But as spring gave way to summer, Masar came oh-so-close to turning in her cleats. A member of the Chicago Red Stars of Women's Professional Soccer, Masar wasn't starting and hadn't scored a single goal in the 2010 season.

"I was going to be done after this year, to be honest," Masar said last week, munching on some chips in the bowels of Toyota Park, the sparkling soccer-only facility that houses the Red Stars and the Chicago Fire of MLS.

"It wasn't worth everything. And if I didn't score, I probably wasn't going to be picked up (for next season) anyway."

Now? After a remarkable turnaround that saw Masar score eight goals in a 12-match stretch, she ranks seventh in WPS in goals and has firmly established herself as one of the Red Stars' centerpieces heading into the 2011 season.

"It's kind of been a crazy, crazy turn of events," she said.

Midsummer comeback

The second season of Masar's pro career barely got off the ground. She was coming off the bench for coach Emma Hayes' team, which was languishing near the bottom of the standings.

Hayes was fired May 24 after a 2-4-1 start.

That began a chain of events that transformed Masar's season and, ultimately, how she viewed her soccer career.

After Hayes' departure, Red Stars general manager Marcia McDermott – who was an assistant under UI coach Janet Rayfield during Masar's Illini career – stepped in for two weeks to coach the team. McDermott also called on Rayfield's help. The Illini coach spent several weeks working with the Red Stars, even traveling with the team. Most important, however, Rayfield had a heart-to-heart talk with her former star.

"I think my confidence was pretty low and right before the Boston game (June 25) she sat down and talked to me," Masar said. "This is probably the hardest conversation that I've had with her just because she said, 'I don't know what's gotten into you. You're not being the Ella I know. I don't know if you're trying to fake it or what.'

"She really put things into perspective. She knows me."

The next night, as Rayfield looked on during a match against the Boston Breakers, Masar scored both of the team's goals in a 2-1 victory.

"When I scored, the first thing I thought was running over there and giving her a hug," Masar said. "Because she's been through it with everything.

"I don't think she ever meant to hurt me, but that's what family does. They tell you things that are the truth, and you go with it. I needed to hear it and she called it."

The Red Stars hired Omid Namazi as head coach, and he inserted Masar into the starting lineup. Her confidence was beginning to percolate.

"She got along with the old coach, but she was in and out of the rotation," said Tyson Masar, Ella's brother. "Ella is a 'confidence player' and this coach came in and immediately said, 'Look, you're going to start.' Instead of coming off the bench or being a role player, it was like, 'Let's get Ella the ball and get her in front of the goal.' She started putting them away."

Six more goals soon followed. Namazi wasn't surprised.

"She took the opportunity that came her way when we got her in the starting lineup," Namazi said. "She was frustrated that she wasn't getting playing time, and then she scores a goal in her first game started, and it snowballed from there. But it all comes from hard work. And Ella is the type of player that's going to run through a wall for you.

"I give her a lot of credit. She's come a long way. Confidence also builds as you score those goals. Anything you touch, you feel like something good is going to happen."

That's why Tyson Masar refers to his sister as a "confidence player." When her confidence is booming, she's a handful to contain.

"As soon as she scored those goals," Tyson said, "she had a different air about her. Instead of being tentative and looking like she was trying not to make a mistake, it was the Ella of old. Then the goals started running in. And, man, it's been fun to watch."

Penalty shot

One of those eight goals, however, came with a price. While scoring, Masar ran into the keeper, who broke Masar's nose for the third time.

She had surgery for a twisted septum at the end of August. With the Red Stars' season concluding today, the club chose to have Masar sit out the final two matches.

"It's part of the game," Masar said. "The dangerous part about the septum is if you injure it while it's repairing, you can get a hole forever."

The injury led to another key decision: Masar is headed to Lillestrom, Norway, on Friday, joining LSK Kvinner FK for an eight-game fall season. She'll return to Champaign on Nov. 15.

"I played there two years ago, so I know the environment," she said. "Norwegians are some of the most technical players in the world, and that's something I need to work on. And (WPS) money isn't the best money, so I get 2 1/2 months more pay, and I'm training twice a day and I get eight more 90-minute games."

Masar's springtime drought didn't help her quest to earn a spot on the U.S. National Team. She was a member of the U.S. squad as recently as last October, but she was not named to the 24-player roster this season.

"She wants to make the National Team again," Tyson Masar said. "She had a taste of it and said it was a life-changing experience, playing for the country in front of so many people. She wants to get back there, and for her to do it she needs to keep playing and keep getting better."

Whether she achieves that goal, Masar's reinvigorated career appears on another upswing. The strange part is, Masar figures it wouldn't be that way if she wasn't willing a few months ago to say, "I'm done."

The pro game, she said, "definitely opened my eyes." It was soccer in a different form, and it required a major adjustment in her approach.

"You come from a program where you're kind of the head honcho and work your way up, and the hard work paid off," Masar said. "And then you come here and it's not about hard work. It's about producing. It's about getting paid. If you don't, you're going to get traded.

"I came from loving it and soccer being everything (to me), to really understanding that it's what I do, not who I am. I had to realize that, and think that I was ready to walk away and be OK with that decision. I think that's helped me put a light on it.

"I was holding on so hard to that, and I just finally had to let it go."

Top of the charts

Ella Masar, Urbana Class of 2004, is one of the top female athletes in school history. Here are five others we'd put on the list with Masar:

NANCY THIES MARSHALL (Class of 1975): Former Illini gymnast (right) represented Urbana in the 1972 Olympics.

KATIE STEPHENS (1999): A two-time News-Gazette Area Player of the Year, she preceded Masar as the program's top star.

MARTHA SALLEE (1982): She was a premier player in three sports (volleyball, basketball, softball), earning All-Big 12 honors in all.

ANNE KIDDOO STORSVED (1987): She posted four top-10 finishes at the state swim meet before continuing her career at Indiana, where she competed on two school record-breaking relay teams.

KAREN BREMS KURRECK (1980): Never competed for an Urbana High team, but she was an Illini gymnast and the 1994 world champion cyclist in the individual time trial.