Hakala is considered to be the best Finnish women's basketball player ever. She won 16 women's Finnish championships. In the Finnish national team she played a total of 26 years and 251 matches with 4138 points. She was part of the Finnish team that played in EuroBasket Women in 1980 (Score average 16.7 points/match), 1981 (18.9) and 1987 (21.2).