Monk Berger is still answering her wake-up call.

Two years ago, Berger enjoyed plenty of recognition as Hawaii’s starting goalkeeper. The touted recruit out of SoCal was entrusted as the last line of UH’s defense as just a true freshman — and acquitted herself pretty well, too, tying the Rainbow Wahine record for solo shutouts with seven. She even made the Big West All-Freshman team in helping Hawaii to an 8-8-1 record.

Nothing was handed to her. But it was also a little too much and little too soon, even for a player who had a stint on the U-15 U.S. National Team.

"I think she lost herself a little bit," UH coach Michele Nagamine said. "I think she kind of forgot why she played the game. … She’s always been a passionate, happy-go-lucky kid.

"(Before), she was off-the-wall energy. And I asked her, ‘What happened to that Monk?’ I think with a successful freshman season, she had some expectations her sophomore year. But I think when you get a lot of things your freshman year, you get complacent and you start to forget how hard you need to work because in your mind it came easy."

Berger lost her starting job to Erica Young in 2014 and was largely relegated to watching outcomes from the bench. It was a bitter pill to swallow as the Wahine struggled to an eighth-place finish in the Big West.

"I played well (as a freshman), I got accolades, we did well as a team and then I didn’t perform last year," Berger said. "And it really hurt. I think it was kind of a wake- up call, God’s way of saying you have bigger and better things coming your way, and that speaks now.

"All I want to do is just be that Monk. Just want to get back to where I was and be the better player that I can be."

Berger won back her starting job during fall camp and has two shutouts in eight games for 3-6-1 Hawaii. She missed UH’s most recent two-game road trip because of concussion-like symptoms, but is now back in the fold when UH takes on UC Santa Barbara to open Big West play today.

Monk meditated on her shortcomings over the summer and resolved to remake herself going into her junior season. In addition to the offseason team regimen of weights and cardio, that meant working with a dedicated goalkeepers coach and training with a men’s team.

"It was brutal. Many times I just wanted to roll over because I was so tired," she said. "(But) I wanted that feeling again … of having the team on my back and having their backs."

It was worth it. Much of her dormant explosiveness returned, and paired with her natural instincts, she was a formidable force in goal again.

She is 2-for-2 on penalty kicks saved this season (although Stanford scored on the rebound).

"Her reflexes are quite catlike," Nagamine said. "She can be going in one direction and then just kind of turn and swivel in another direction. I mean, my cat’s 24 pounds, so he’s not in that boat. But Monk is honed, she knows what she does well. She’s got great technique, she’s been coached at a very high level."

Lindsey Huie, a two-time national champion at Portland whom Berger considers an aunt, coached her on a U-11 team in California about 10 years ago. It was then that Berger’s gifts came to the fore. Huie told Berger, then a field player, that she’d be a Division I player someday — but a change was in order.

"I saw this tall girl, I mean she was way bigger than all the other kids, and I thought ‘Definitely I’m going to need that one,’" Huie said. "So I picked her up and I realized she wouldn’t run. She wouldn’t run to save her life. So I thought, her height, size, I think she’d be a pretty good goalie. … What she has can’t be taught. I knew she had a definite gift. Her talent has always been funneling her mind to be stronger than the adversity that she faces."