Pleasant Hill native Melissa Seidemann is one of 13 players to make the 2012 U.S. Women’s Water Polo team competing at the London Olympics.

Seidemann, who plays at Stanford, is one of four East Bay natives to make the team.

A 2008 graduate of CPHS, she competed for the water polo team all four years and for three years on the swim team. She was named team MVP in ‘07 and as a senior, was named an NISCA All-American and helped lead the team to a DFAL title. Seidemann was a member of the gold medal U.S. Youth National Team at the Pan-American Junior Games in ‘06. She was the leading scorer in the tournament with 20 goals. She also represented the USA in Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia.

As a freshman at Stanford in ‘09, she was named to ACWPC All-America First Team and led the team with 59 goals - the fourth true freshman since 1997 to lead the team in goals. In 2010 she led Stanford in scoring for a second-straight year, firing home 54 goals. She was named to All-MPSF Third Team, earned a place on All-National Collegiate Championship First Team and a spot on MPSF All-Academic list. As a junior she was selected to All-MPSF First Team as she was second on the team with 51 goals, her third straight 50-goal season. That team won the NCAA National Championship. This past season, Seidemann took a leave of absence from Stanford to train with the U.S. National Team in hopes of making the Olympic Team. Seidemann will graduate in 2013 with a degree in psychology. Her older sister Lauren played water polo at UC Davis and her younger sister Natalie is on the USA Water Polo Cadet National Team training squad.

*The U.S. Olympic Women’s Water Polo team begins their competition on July 30 against Hungary.