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Pirate Spotlight: Melody Taal

Date: October 30, 2017

By: James Justice

She is one of eight on the Seton Hall tennis team, and one of two from the Netherlands. Molded on clay, but now making her mark on the hardcourt, Melody Taal may be a sophomore, but the 20-year-old certainly does not lack in understanding on the court, and maturity off of it.

Her journey with sports began at a young age in the Netherlands, where according to Taal, tennis exists as the third major sport behind soccer and field hockey. Her gravitation toward tennis began at a young age, volleying back and forth with her grandfather during free time.

"It's kind of a family thing," Taal said. "It started with my grandad; he didn't play that high, but he's very passionate about it."

With every casual back and forth, her love for the sport grew. It eventually reached a point wherein the choice came between tennis and other sports, and Taal resoundingly chose tennis.

"When I turned six years old, I could pick my own sport, and I was like, I want to do tennis, because my grandad did it and my mom did it," Taal said. "And then it turned out I was pretty good, and I really liked it, so, I never quit."

taal

(Photo: SHU Athletics)

A seminal moment when Taal realized her talent was in the U-16 nationals back in the Netherlands, a tournament which brought together some of the best players from across the country, and a tournament in which she finished fourth.

But her success on the court ironically brought hardship when Taal was forced to face an unappealing set of options: become professional or put down her racket and go to college. This decision was all that existed for her in the Netherlands, and so Taal choose neither, picking the best of both world's option, which ultimately forced her to travel across the world, in playing college tennis in the United States.

"I was kind of stuck in that situation of not knowing what to do, because I really wanted to go to college, but I really wanted to keep playing tennis," Taal said. "A couple of friends already played college tennis and they were like 'you should do it, you should at least take a look at it.' Then I found out about it and was like 'I want to do this, and I think I'm in a good spot here.' I can still go to college and play tennis, which is awesome."

When deciding 'n college tennis, the next decision in the line of dominos was which school to choose in the United States, trying in doing so to answer the question of what school fit her needs academically and athletically, in addition to which school had the best location.

"I'm a business major, and Seton Hall is one of the best business majors here," Taal said. "And also, it's close to New York, which makes it closer to my home. It's like a six-hour flight, which isn't far, relatively speaking. It's a good business school, I can still compete in division one competition and it's not far away from home."

But while still in the period from commitment to day one at Seton Hall, Taal was thrown for a loop when the longtime Pirates head coach who recruited her announced he would no longer be in charge of the program. The period was tumultuous to say the least for Taal and the three other freshmen who came into the program last season.

"I was recruited by a coach which was here a long time, and over the summer before I came here as a freshman, he said to me 'I'm not going to be your coach,'" Taal said. "So first I thought, there's not going to be a coach, because we did not find out until like a month before."

Contrary to her fears, there would be a coach, and a worthy one at that in Riza Zalameda. The former pro Zalameda had played collegiate tennis at UCLA before later going on to play several seasons on tour, achieving the bulk of her success in doubles competition. It's easy, according to Taal, to notice how Zalameda played at the top level, as she demands a lot.

"Working with our coach has been incredible," Taal said. "She can be tough, we have some tough practices during the week, like even now we're in off-season. You can tell she's been a professional; she wants us to practice like professionals.

Dealing with an unexpected coaching change was barely scratching the surface, literally, of adjustments which Taal had to make playing college tennis. The first big change was the surface, with Taal having played exclusively on clay in the Netherlands, but now, forced to adjust to the blacktop-style hardcourt seen throughout most of North America.

"Back home I always used to play on clay, on the red clay," Taal said. "So, coming here playing on the hard court was like a big transition for me, because, I kind of changed my game style for that. I used to play with a little more spinny balls, and now like flatter, because the pace is a lot faster here on hardcourt than I used to play on clay. Clay is actually my first, my favorite surface."

And if adjusting to clay and coaches was not enough, Taal now had to deal with a concept that was as foreign as the country she now adopted as home: teammates. College tennis, unlike any form of professional tennis, is a team-oriented sport. The game is still played in singles or doubles, however, instead of players only focusing on their own results, the results of each teammates match add up to decide the fate of the collective group.

tennis

(Photo: SHU Athletics)

"It's an individual sport, and college tennis manages to put in a team perspective," Taal said. "And even though it's an individual sport, you still play for each other, which makes it more of a team sport. It's super fun to compete next to your teammates, and it does feel like a team effort if we win, because you need four points to win. And I know these are individual points, but each one counts towards the team."

Having embraced the new style of tennis, her teammates and the university, the Melody Taal of 2017, along with the entire Seton Hall roster, is at a completely different place from where they were last year. From a group with no seniors, to now, a group with no freshman.

"I think we might be one of the strongest-bonded teams, because we know each other so well," Taal said. "We've spent a year and a half, day in, day out with each other, and we're such a small team. I think I know every girl on my team pretty well now. You know what to expect from your teammates, and they know what to expect from you. So, I'm really excited for this upcoming semester where we might be one of the oldest teams now."

That spontaneous-like shift from a group defined by inexperienced to a group defined by veterans is part of the reason why Taal is already looking forward to a spring season in which the Pirates will have more tournaments at home, travel across the country and be tested by some of the toughest competition the conference and region have to offer.

"In the spring, we're playing a lot of matches, more than last spring, so I'm really excited for that," Taal said. "I think the expectation is just competing really hard with the other teams because we play a lot of teams that are Ivy League, or we go to L.A. for spring break. We play a lot of good teams, and I'm so excited to see how well we compete with them."

Taal perhaps could be playing professionally right now, but made a choice two years ago that was as much focused in furthering her education as it was furthering her time on the court. Her reward for that in the present moment is an integral role on a tight-knit group of Seton Hall tennis players, and in three years, will be a degree in business from the Stillman School.

 

James Justice can be found on Twitter @JamesJusticeIII and can be reached by e-mail at james.justice@student.shu.edu.

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