Hard work and determination were exactly what the Illini needed as the men's club soccer team won its first national championship since 1986.

"It was crazy," sophomore midfielder Todd Mayer said. "There were probably 800 people there — a lot of them were teams we had played and fans we had picked up because we play with a lot of class and don't really trash talk. A lot of people were rooting for us. When we won, everyone was swarming the field."

The Illini knocked past six teams to go 6-0 in three days of play in the National Intramural- Recreational Sports Association men's soccer tournament hosted by the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

"That's just hard on the body," senior defender Keith Hormel said. "It's more of a physical test but also a mental test. You do whatever you need to do to get through it, it's pretty hard."

According to Mayer, the team benefitted from its depth, allowing players to sub for one another. Mayer said that those players who played the whole game were fatigued at the end.

The Illini (22-3) started things off against Minnesota, winning 3-1 over the Gophers, and never looked back. The team went on to defeat Oklahoma State, Clemson, Texas A&M, Colorado State and finally Utah State in the championship game.

Leading the way for the Illini was senior Tyson Masar who knocked in six goals to earn Tournament MVP honors as well as a spot on the All-Tournament team.

"I scored a good amount of goals," Masar said. "(The award) was an added benefit. They were giving me the ball with good position. I couldn't have done it without the help of the guys on the team."

Also named to the All-Tournament team from the Illini were Hormel, Jeremy Etzkorn and Walter Musumeci. Musumeci was also named Most Valuable Goalie.

"It felt great (to be named to the All-Tournament team)," Hormel said. "I was surprised because I didn't score any goals and wasn't really an offensive threat. Because I play stopper, I would switch the point of attack and play smart balls on defense and just organize the team."

Masar is not surprised with this team's tournament success because they played well all season.

"Our starting 11 were amazing but our guys off the bench are amazing too," Masar said. "We have been playing really well all year — it was just real fun to play. We were one of the teams to beat and the other teams knew that, but it's hard to do in six games. I knew we had the chance to do it, we just had to do it six times."

"The whole year the attitude of the team was 'This is our year to win it,'" Mayer said. "We had the right chemistry among the team and went into the tournament knowing not as many teams were as talented as us and worked as hard as us so we knew we could win it. We just knew there was a lot of work ahead of us."

For Masar, the win is the perfect way to end his soccer career at Illinois.

"It's awesome," Masar said. "It didn't really set in at first. I'm a senior — the feeling that we got to do it all together (is great). Freshman year we got third and sophomore year we got second. I'm glad we got to do it. It was great to go out with this great group of guys."