The time will come for Hawaii’s seniors to reflect on all they’ll take away from their years in the Rainbow Wahine water polo program.

For now, they’re focused on what they have left to give.

Emily Carr and Caitlin Lopes da Silva joined the program in January 2012 as Maureen Cole’s first recruits after she accepted the head coaching job. Zoe Respondek made a cross-country move a year later in the wake of Maryland’s decision to drop its water polo program.

Since then, they’ve play integral roles in two Big West titles in a three-year stretch and will cap their careers with three matches at the NCAA tournament starting Friday.

"Those three games I know the three of us are going to play with a lot of heart," Lopes da Silva said. "We’re going to give our team everything because it’s our last chance to give back to the program and to Mo and (assistants) Ryan (Castle) and Aaron (Chaney)."

The Rainbow Wahine open the program’s fifth appearance in the National Collegiate Women’s Water Polo Championship against USC on Friday at the Avery Aquatic Center in Stanford, Calif. The winner faces host Stanford or Princeton in the semifinals on Saturday while the loser falls to the consolation bracket. The finals are set for Sunday.

A 12-day break heading into the USC match gave the Wahine some time to refocus after a joyous sendoff in their home pool when Lopes da Silva hammered in the winning goal with 10 seconds left in overtime in the Big West title match against UC Irvine.

She’s flashed back to that moment a few times since, "but it’s not really the goal, to be honest," Lopes da Silva said. "It’s the collective effort of everyone and the whole season coming together and the way we had hoped for and really being motivated to just grasp that opportunity in the final."

Cole credited the seniors’ opportunity to finish their careers with a second NCAA tournament berth to a team-first culture they’ve cultivated.

"They haven’t necessarily scored as many of the goals (this season) but they’ve been great leaders," Cole said.

"It all adds up. Everyone knows their role, it doesn’t matter who scores the goal at the end. … I think by now they all have a better understanding of the way the game should be played among this team and it’s clicking."

Cole had only seen video of Lopes da Silva when she recruited the prospect out of New Zealand. Lopes da Silva developed into one of UH’s fastest players in the water, a creative passer and the game-winning goal in the Big West final was the 100th of her career.

Carr played against UH in an exhibition with Australia’s junior national team, a trip that sold her on the idea of playing college water polo in the U.S. She raised her career goal total to 97 this season and Cole ranks her as "one of the most explosive players I’ve ever seen."

Scoring has been Respondek’s secondary goal since establishing herself as a catalyst on both ends of the pool when she transferred from Maryland.

"A lot of the girls stopped playing water polo and they couldn’t find a program that fit," Respondek said. "But thankfully Mo and (former assistant Serela Kay) picked me up and it worked out really well."

For both sides, really.

"Zoe is the person who never shows up on the stat sheet but has been instrumental in all of our successes from the beginning," Cole said. "She is the ballhandler, she’s organizing our defense and she’s setting up our plays on offense."

Prior to leaving for Stanford, the rematch with USC — which won a regular-season meeting 10-1 in March — kept the seniors trained on the challenge ahead. Whatever the weekend’s outcome, they’ll have far more than a list of accomplishments to look back upon.

"We’re from different parts of the world, these are two of my best friends and we’ve just been able to bond over water polo in a beautiful place like Hawaii, which is the best it can get I think," Carr said.