LEWISBURG -- The accent is a dead giveaway that Richie Hyden really isn't from Connecticut.

He uses phrases like "this is awesome" on a regular basis, so he seems more California cool than Connecticut blueblood. But it's the accent that proves the junior has certainly come a long way to get to Bucknell.

Hyden, a native of Melbourne, Australia, is one of the top men's water polo players in the nation and is one of the biggest reasons why coach John Abdou's squad is ranked in the top 20 nationally.

Not bad for a guy who sort of stumbled upon Lewisburg.

A scholastic All-American at Greenwich, Conn., Hyden moved to the United States with his family when he was high school after his father was transferred to a job in New York.

Hyden's first trip to Bucknell came in 2005 -- soon after Kinney Natatorium opened -- when he came to the national championships. Hyden fell in love with everything. So the only school on the East Coast he visited ended up getting Hyden's services.

"When I came here for the Final Four in 2005, I looked around and it was awesome," Hyden remembered last week before the Bison left for California and the UC Irvine Invitational. "I walked around here and loved it right way. It was the only East Coast school I really looked at. It was the best fit."

What a find he has been for the Bison.

Making an impact

In his first season with the Bison, Hyden was the 2007 CWPA Southern Division Rookie of the Year, posting 40 goals and 31 assists. Last year, he led Bucknell in nearly every category, scoring 87 goals, adding 51 assists and scoring 138 points, earning CWPA Southern Division first-team honors and honorable mention All-American status.

That was just what he wanted. While schools on the West Coast were also interested in his services, Hyden found everything a lot closer to Connecticut.

"I wanted to play all four years. I wanted to play right away and not redshirt," he said. "I wanted to get as much experience as possible as quickly as possible."

To do that, however, he had to adjust. A swimmer and a water polo player during his younger days in Australia, Hyden said the style of water polo in the United States is a lot different than that in Australia, which is more like the international game.

The American game, Hyden said, involves a lot more swimming, both in games and training.

Hyden said in the preseason at Bucknell, the team will do swimming sets of 6,000 to 8,000 yards during practice. On the other hand, when he traveled back to Australia last summer to work out with the national team -- Hyden is a member of the National Youth and Junior teams -- the team did nothing but game action three sessions a day.

"I swam when I was little, then I started playing polo and it was, This is awesome, swimming is boring,'"Š" said Hyden, who helped lead his high school swim team to the state title. "I've always swam, so it made the transition to college a lot easier. When I play, I don't have to worry about being so tired and I can concentrate on making decisions."

Moving forward

Hyden trained with the Australian national team this summer, competing against many players he saw in the Beijing Olympics. Not surprisingly, he thought it was awesome.

In the future, he would love to be part of Australia's Olympic team, but right now his focus is on his final year and a half at Bucknell.

The Bison, ranked 17th in the nation, just went through a stretch of games where they won six of seven. In that winning streak were three wins over ranked teams, including a 12-11 upset of No. 10 Navy where Beau Caillouette scored with a second left to beat the Midshipmen.

"Beating Navy was huge for us," said Hyden. "We've never beaten Navy since I've been here. I never thought we'd get past them."

Bucknell went 1-3 at the UC Irvine Invitational over the weekend, falling to three teams ranked in the top 13 in the country. But the Bison are 12-9 overall, and more importantly 5-1 in the CWPA.

That sets them up for a run at the Eastern Championships in late November in Cambridge, Mass.

"Things have really come together," said Hyden. "We beat Navy, which has won the last three Eastern Championships. Winning an Eastern Championship would be awesome and reaching the Final Four, that's all I've wanted since I first saw it and I feel like we can grab that this year."