Taeghen Hack hopes her first experience at the NCAA women’s water polo national championships won’t be her last.
Hack, who spent years playing for the Estevan Sharks water polo program, is a first-year player with the Salem University Tigers program in Salem, West Virginia. They reached the national tournament for the first time in program history this year, but dropped a 9-8 decision to the Marist College Red Foxes.
It was a play-in game, so the loss ended the Tigers season.
Marist went on to lose to the eventual national champions, the University of Southern California Trojans, in the quarter-final round.
Nationals were held May 14-16 at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
The sting of losing to Marist didn’t sour the experience for Hack.
“Seeing the entire set-up, how professional it was, it was something I had never experienced before, even just playing at NCL (National Championship League) back home, I had never experienced something like this before,” said Hack.
The game against Marist was a nail-biter, as the Red Foxes scored the winner with six seconds remaining.
The Red Foxes jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, but the Tigers fought back. The lead changed hands several times, and the Tigers had an 8-7 advantage at one point.
“Only 10 teams get to go to this tournament out of the entire country, and to be one of them is an accomplishment, especially since the team has never gone there before,” said Hack.
They played well, but Hack sensed that Marist was a little hungrier.
“I’m proud of our team. I’m proud of everything that we’ve done throughout the season, and also at NCAAs, I think it was really good for everyone to experience that, and we can only learn from this,” said Hack.
Salem University qualified by winning their conference.
Hack thought she played well at nationals. The tournament was held in an outdoor pool, which was a first for her.
The experience of being at nationals should give the Tigers a boost moving forward.
“I think it’s going to give us a pretty good base of what we need to do to improve. Going into it, we only had three weeks to train before going to NCAAs, so I think even just experiencing this, and seeing all these amazing teams there and getting to see them play really shows the level that we need to step up to if we want to go to NCAAs and if we want to push further at NCAAs,” said Hack.
The Tigers program has been working for the past three years to get to the NCAA level, and the fact that they advanced reflects how much work they put into it, and how far they can go.
“For me as a player, I think that being there, seeing everything, seeing how different people play, it’s given me more knowledge as to what I need to do to get better,” said Hack.
When she watched the final between the Trojans and UCLA, she saw how strong the athletes are.
The Tigers were flown back home the day after the loss to the Red Foxes, but Hack watched the games online. Spectators were allowed to attend for the final.
Every member of the Tigers squad is eligible to return next season. The team’s captain, who is a senior, has decided to return to complete her masters’ degree.
“It’s going to help a lot,” said Hack. “It’s really nice to not lose any players and to be bringing in a lot of players as well. We can really grow our team and see everybody’s skills and where everybody fits in.”
Hack hopes that they return to nationals next year, and the subsequent years, so that next year’s freshmen players can get the same experience she did.
“I would love to keep going there and getting our name really out there and on the map,” said Hack.
