Monk Berger is determined to leave Hawai'i with no regrets after her senior season in 2016.

The Rainbow Wahine goalkeeper quickly found herself in the spotlight during a stellar freshman campaign in 2013, earning recognition as the CollegeSoccer360.com National Freshman of the Week in addition to two Big West Defensive Player of the Week honors and a selection to the Big West All-Freshman Team. But over the next two years, Berger fell short of matching the success she enjoyed as a freshman.

Starting Fresh
 
"I had to let go of my previous seasons," Berger said describing her preparation for her senior year. "A lot of people say I had a great freshman year, and I did. I'm not trying to take that away from myself, but that's in the past. Sophomore and junior years were a little bumpy, but you've got to let it go. You've got to focus on the now."
 
The "now" is a great place for Berger to focus. She has played every minute in net during Hawai'i's best start in program history—a 7-1-1 record through nine games—and owns the 23rd best save percentage in the country at .877. Her four shutouts rank 36th in NCAA Division I and boosted her career total to a school-record 13.
 
"This is the capability that she's had since her sophomore year," Hawai'i head coach Michele Nagamine said. "She came back really determined to make sure that she left here with no regrets."
 
Turning Point
 
After the 2015 season, the realization that there was no longer an elder goalkeeper to lead the way to hit Berger hard. She knew then that it was her time to take on the responsibility of being a senior leader.
 
"As soon as Erica Young—the previous goalkeeper—graduated, I had no one to look up to," Berger said. "I'm the senior goalkeeper and I have to be that role model for my fellow teammates."
 
With a new determination to lead by example, Berger took no shortcuts in her preparation for her senior season. She worked hard on conditioning throughout the offseason, passed her fitness tests when fall camp began, and has been rolling ever since.
 
"She took her summer fitness packet very seriously, and she's as trim and as fit as I've ever seen her," Nagamine said. "She's 100 percent bought in, and now she's reaping the benefits of all that hard work."
 
Building Team Chemistry
 
Berger's teammates have taken notice. Fellow senior Storm Kenui—a mainstay of Hawai'i's back line that has teamed up with Berger to shut down Wahine opponents this season—said she can sense Berger playing with a different mentality.
 
"She definitely looks like she's having more fun," Kenui said. "She makes the back line feel confident. We know that if we make a mistake, she will be there to pick us up."
 
Berger isn't the only Hawai'i player who has taken her game to the next level this season. Just halfway through the 2016 schedule, the Rainbow Wahine have already more than doubled their win total from all of 2015 while using a majority of the same players from that 2015 team. That, according to Nagamine, is a credit to how much work the team put in as a whole throughout the offseason to ensure success in 2016.
 
While the Rainbow Wahine have built momentum through non-conference play, a challenging eight-game Big West Conference schedule will determine how this team is judged. With the best team-chemistry in recent memory and the same work ethic that yielded the best start in program history, Berger and her teammates are making sure that in 2016 there are no regrets.

"It's been loads of fun," Berger said of seeing the hard work of her teammates translate to victories on the pitch. "We have such a great team, such great teammates. I love these girls. To go from a losing season, and working so hard for the past six to eight months, it's been a great feeling to see it all starting to pay off. We've just got to take it one game at a time, not look back, have no regrets and just leave everything on the field."