London 2012 Water Polo: US Women's Team Makes History in the Pool

History has been made in women’s water polo.

For the first time ever, the United States won the gold medal in women’s water polo as they defeated Spain 8-5 on Thursday, for the first Olympic triumph since the men won the event back in 1904.

The star of the game was 19-year-old Maggie Steffens, who registered five goals. She was the high scorer of all water polo players in the Olympics and was clearly the team MVP. For the tournament she scored 21 times.

The U.S. was able to win comfortably despite losing the time of possession battle 16:58 to 15:02.

It’s been a long road for some of the veterans on the team. Four-time Olympians Brenda Villa and Heather Petri had previously settled for two silvers and a bronze. Now they are golden.

Maggie’s older sister Jessica believed that the lack of gold for the vets really brought the team closer together (via Yahoo! Sports):

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I think that's something that's bonded our team a lot throughout our journey is getting them the gold. I think we did it, well, obviously for our team, but we did it for them, and for the history of U.S.A. water polo.

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As soon as the clock struck zero, the entire team including coaches jumped into the pool for the customary celebration for when a water polo team wins a title or significant match. It didn’t matter what the attire was, everyone took a dip into the pool.

It was quite the comical sight to watch all of the coaches treading water while yelling in triumph.

Thursday was a historic day for the sport, and it will be interesting to see how a gold medal will impact the popularity of the sport in America moving forward.

Tally another gold for the United States. 

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