RYDE, Australia (AP) -- Nerves? Not the Americans, not after waiting a century for this moment.

 "I'm tired of waiting. I'm ready to play," defender Heather Petri said.

 U.S. women's water polo coach Guy Baker, though, is a different story.

 He passed on the opening ceremony Friday to make final preparations for the Americans' first match with world champ Netherlands on Saturday. He was frustrated with a bus driver who Thursday took his team 90 minutes out of its way for a scrimmage with Australia.

 His fiance, team leader Michelle Pickering, says Baker's getting harder to be around the closer he gets to the first-ever women's Olympic tournament.

 Baker smiles and shakes his head. "A coach has got to be at this level," he said, moving his hand in a smooth, straight motion.

 Instead, the first day at the Ryde Leisure Aquatic Center should be like a wild wave pattern.

 "They are doing great," Baker said of his team's psyche. "They seem to have it handled."

 Baker and the club went through a final practice he called crisp. Most of them marched with the American team at the opening ceremony.

 Baker says that surge of emotion should carry them through the historic opening day when the Americans meet Netherlands.

 It's the second game, Sunday against Canada, that's got Baker crazy.

 "There's bound to be a letdown. That's natural," Baker said. "We've got to work to overcome that."

 Most U.S. players never expected to have to handle a letdown.

 Maureen O'Toole, at 39 regarded as the greatest women's player of all time, retired in 1994 when she thought that no Olympic spot would open up for women.

 She un-retired four years later when the rumors became official -- women's water polo was in.

 "I think the emotion is really going to start when I walk in the opening ceremonies," O'Toole said.

 Swail said when players pushed to add a women's event, officials told them repeatedly that water polo's female equivalent was synchronized swimming.

 "Come on," she said.

 Swail's not against the charm and grace of the water ballet, but until one of them gets an elbow to the gut, "it's hard to compare the two," she said.

 The growth of women's water polo -- there are 53 colleges playing it today, up from four in 1994 -- has added life to a sport where the American men have two silvers and a bronze in seven Olympics since 1972.

 The United States Olympic Committee gave United States Water Polo $1 million for the Sydney Games, just like in Atlanta. But the money was split equally between the men and the women, said federation executive director Bruce Wigo.

 Terry Schroeder, the face and body of American water polo -- his torso was used for an Olympic statue outside the Los Angeles Coliseum -- for nearly 15 years, says the women's rise might lead to some hard feelings by the men.

 "But I think the women lift everyone," said Schroeder, a chiropractor and Pepperdine's water polo coach. "It's a positive thing for the sport, the gals seem to love it and they play at a good high level."

 Swail said as much as the U.S. team wants victory, they realize everyone on all the Olympic clubs they face is treading new and exciting water for women.

 "This is definitely going to be historic," she said.

 Ericka Lorenz, the American's 19-year-old star, said "all the hype and stuff is really cool. But once you start thinking about all that, you stop thinking about what you have to do in the pool, and that's the last thing I want to happen."