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U.S. Women's Water Polo Team Wins In Overtime To Reach Gold Medal Game

U.S. water polo players on the bench react during their semifinal match between Australia and the United States at the Water Polo Arena in London. The Americans will play for gold on Thursday.
Adam Pretty
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U.S. water polo players on the bench react during their semifinal match between Australia and the United States at the Water Polo Arena in London. The Americans will play for gold on Thursday.

The American women's water polo team will again chase an elusive gold medal, this time at the London Olympics. The team qualified for the gold medal match by defeating longtime Olympic rival Australia.

Tied after regular time expired, the Americans scored two goals in overtime to beat the Australian water polo women, 11-9. Now the U.S. team moves on to the gold medal match Thursday.

With two four-time Olympians and a medal in every Olympics that has featured the sport, Team USA is desperate for gold. It's the one medal yet to hang around the players' necks. The team lost the gold medal match to the Netherlands four years ago in the final 30 seconds.

The U.S. team will play Spain in the gold medal match Thursday at 3 p.m. ET.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Howard Berkes is a correspondent for the NPR Investigations Unit.