USA Water Polo: Bay Area Players Will Try To Help Bring Home The Gold

At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, both the men's and women's United States water polo teams took home the silver medal in the event. This year, the teams will head to London and the Summer Games with one goal in mind: bringing home the gold.

The Bay Area will be well-represented on the two water polo teams. On the men's team, Peter Varellas is from Moraga and attends Stanford. Jessica Steffens and Melissa Seidemann also attend Stanford and will be on the women's team, as will Maggie Steffens of San Ramon and Heather Petri of Oakland, who attends Cal.

The U.S. Men's team will be in Group B (out of two groups), which also includes Great Britian, Hungary, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia. The top four teams in each group after round robin play will advance to the knockout medal round. The men's team plays Montenegro on July 29, Romania on July 31, Great Britain on August 2, Serbia on August 4 and Hungary on August 6.

The U.S. Women's team will be in Group A (out of two groups), which also includes China, Hungary and Spain. The women's team will play Hungary on July 30, Spain on August 1 and China on August 3. After this round-robin play, the knockout medal round will begin.

For complete coverage of the Summer Games in London, please stay tuned to SB Nation's dedicated 2012 Olympics hub.