It was a season to remember for Estevan's Taeghen Hack.

Hack was a member of the National Championship League (NCL), Under-19 Team Saskatchewan Water Polo team who took home a national championship title in Montreal at the end of May.

As one of the youngest members on the team, Hack scored six goals in 15 games. The 13-7 victory over the Pacific Storm in the championship game gave Saskatchewan their first ever Under-19 Women's NCL National Championship.

For a full story from nationals in Montreal, read our submitted story below.

The 2017-2018 National Championship League (NCL) season came to close on May 27th in Montreal with the playing of the 16U and 19U National Finals. CAMO, Dollard, Mavericks and Saskatchewan captured the National Championships in the 19U Men, 16U Girls, 16U Boys, and 19U Women’s categories, respectively.

Spectators at the 2018 Nationals Finals were treated to three days of intense competition, as 18 teams played 26 games to determine who would claim the title of National Champion. The Finals featured a little bit of everything; perfect seasons, upsets, rivalries, shootouts, last second heroics. There was seemingly no time to catch your breath over a whirlwind weekend at the Olympic Stadium in Claude-Robillard of Montreal.

As part of 19U Team Sask Taeghen Hack traveled to Montreal for the finals. As a young member of the team she played 15 season games and scored 3 power play goals and 6 goals overall.

The 19U women’s tournament at the finals featured five teams competing in a single elimination bracket to determine the National Champion. The opening match was the quarter-final between Edmonton Tsunami, silver medalists from the Western Conference, against Capital Wave, silver medalists from the East. It was a fantastic match from start to finish. For the first three quarters, neither team led by more than one goal. Midway through the 4th quarter, it looked like Capital Wave might have finally found the edge when Valeria Rojas’s 3rd goal of the game gave Wave a two goal lead at 7-5. Gabrielle Vollman’s goal with 3:14 to go brought Tsunami back within one, and then powerplay goals by Lexi Marissink (her 3rd of the game) and Taylor Halbauer (her 4th of the game) would clinch the victory for Edmonton Tsunami in their first ever National Finals game.

Tsunami’s win set them up for a semi-final game against Crossover Champion Pacific Storm. The semi-final is an extremely tough turn around for the quarter-final winning team, having to play a must win match early in the day, before playing a rested opponent only a few hours later. The challenge is even harder when factoring in the depth of a team like Storm, who can throw multiple lines of players at an opponent. In the semi, Storm played to their strengths from the start, using their depth to constantly send fresh players at Tsunami. The strategy worked perfectly, with six players from Storm scoring multiple goals, on their way to a comfortable 16-7 win.

The other semi-final was one of the most anticipated matches of the National Finals, a rematch of the last two national championship games between Saskatchewan and CAMO. Both teams had won their regular season and conference championships but were meeting in the semi-finals because neither had captured the 19U Crossover. CAMO had won the last three National Championships, but Saskatchewan had been the last team to defeated CAMO so both teams had reason to believe they would claim victory on the day. The match more than lived up to expectations, with the teams trading blows from start to finish, matching each other shot for shot. When Sask scored three straight to lead 5-2 in the 2nd quarter, CAMO scored three straight of their own to tie the score 5-5 at the half. CAMO played from behind for most of the game, never leading until two early goals in the 4th quarter gave the home town squad a 9-8 lead. Just like CAMO had been able to do the entire game, Sask was able to equalize this time, courtesy of a Blaire McDowell goal with 4:32 to go.

As the game entered the final minute, the game was still knotted at nine when Paige Donald made one of the plays of the tournament. First, Donald used perfect timing to reach around a CAMO attacker and deflect the ball away for a steal. Donald then started a fast break 2 on 1 for Saskatchewan with teammate Blaire McDowell. After making the lead pass to McDowell, Donald flew up the pool to be in position to receive the return pass a few seconds later. When the pass came, Donald was able to in one motion, receive the pass and fire it quickly into the open side of the net, just before the CAMO defender was able to get to her. Sask now had a 10-9 lead with under 30 seconds to play.

CAMO would get one last change to tie, earning an exclusion with seconds to go. The ball was passed around to create the opening, and with the buzzer about to sound, Daphnée Guèvremont had just enough of an opening to fire a shot towards the left corner of the net. The ball looked destined to find the back of the net until goalie Amie Graham’s arm came out of nowhere to just deflect the ball over the crossbar and preserve the victory. Sask would play Storm for the National Championship.

The bronze medal game would pit CAMO against Tsunami on Saturday morning. Both teams had already played instant classic matches already in the Finals, and they would deliver one more with the bronze on the line. The match went back and forth, with both teams trading the lead over the course of the game. It looked like Tsunami might finally prevail when Taylor Halbauer’s third goal of the game gave Edmonton a two-goal lead with two minutes to play. Edmonton was able to get a stop on their next defense stand and looked like they would be able to wind the clock down even further, when Floranne Carroll made an incredible play for CAMO. With the Edmonton goalie Julia Zebak in possession of the pool after a CAMO shot, Carroll swam underwater for several meters, escaping the notice of the Edmonton players, and knocked the ball out of the Zebak’s hand. She then retrieved the ball, made a quick pass to her teammate Mélissa Manel Matallah, who scored to bring CAMO to within one. After an offensive foul on Tsunami seconds later, Carroll would fly down the pool ahead of her defender to score the tying goal as well. With that, the game would head to a shootout. Much like the preceding 32 minutes of play, there was little to separate either team in the shootout. The difference came on the 2nd shooter for CAMO, who was stopped by a tremendous save by Julia Zebak. CAMO would score on the rest of their shots, but each remaining Tsunami shooter was able to hold their nerve and place almost perfect shots that left no chance for the CAMO keeper. When Natalie Veronneau placed her shot in the top corner of the net, Tsunami had won the bronze 13-12.

The gold medal game was a rematch of the Western Championships between Saskatchewan and Pacific Storm. Saskatchewan had been able to topple the three-time defending champions from CAMO in the semi-finals, but they could not rest on their laurels, as the Pacific Storm team that awaited them in the finals had proven their worth all year, including through capturing the Crossover Championship. Storm was able to jump to the early lead, 2-1 after the first quarter, thanks to goals by Hadley Gunther and Abigail Carter, as well as great defensive work from Most Valuable Defensive Player Brianna Utas. In the 2nd quarter, Saskatchewan started to assert themselves more and more. After coming up just short in the last two National Championships, it was clear that Saskatchewan was not ready to come up short a third time. Offensively, long-time Sask stalwarts Breanna Dupperon and Paige Donald each tallied three goals, while MVP Blaire McDowell added four more. On the back-end, the pair of 16U goalies Amie Graham and Rumina Edgerton continued their fantastic play, with Edgerton making a particular fantastic save on a 5-meter penalty. They would both win MVG honours for their play in the National Finals. Storm played gamely, keeping the game close into the 3rd quarter, but eventually Sask’s level of play allowed them to pull away and capture their first ever 19U women’s NCL National Championship, 13 to 7.

Submitted by: Melanie Dzeryk