As the AVP Tour heads up the Pacific Coastline away from its Southern California roots until next year, five stars hope a Bay Area homecoming spurs them to success at the Aug. 14-16 AVP Crocs Tour San Francisco Open presented by Barefoot Wine. This marks the third straight season with an AVP stop in San Francisco.

San Jose native and AVP icon Kerri Walsh headlines the homecoming parade. Walsh's Bay Area ties are bolstered by her four-time First-Team All-American career at Stanford. Since graduating in 1999, Walsh has won two Olympic gold medals and five AVP Team of the Year titles with Misty May-Treanor.

Walsh and new partner Rachel Wacholder are seeded third this weekend in San Francisco. The new moms look to build on their fifth-place finish at Hermosa Beach in their 2009 debut. It marked the first time in Walsh's 80 career AVP events she didn't advance to the semifinals. To see an interview with Wacholder and Walsh with their sons at Hermosa Beach, click here.

Walsh has succeeded in her only two AVP events in San Francisco, taking the 2007 and 2008 titles with May-Treanor.

Berkeley area native Nicole Branagh looks to pad her cushion atop the standings as she, too, returns to her roots. Branagh has teamed with Elaine Youngs to win seven of the first 10 Tour events of 2009, including two straight. Youngs' next win will be her 50th as a pro, tying her with Kathy Gregory for sixth all-time.

Barbara Fontana and Ashley Ivy, both Stanford graduates like Walsh, look to thrive with respective partners Jenny Kropp and Lauren Fendrick. Fontana led the Cardinal to the Final Four each of her four seasons at Stanford. Ivy, meanwhile, played in three NCAA Finals matches and led the Cardinal to the 2001 national championship.

On the men's side, former Cardinal Matt Fuerbringer will have an uphill battle on his hands. Fuerbringer, who led Stanford to the 1997 national championship during his four-time All-American career, will not compete with longtime partner Casey Jennings in San Francisco. The duo, which ranks 10th all-time in tournaments played, won in San Francisco in 2007. Fuerbringer will pair up with indoor Olympian Reid Priddy to form the 13th-seeded team. Fuerbringer hasn't been seeded this low since 2003.

Elsewhere in the men's competition, local fans can expect to see some new faces late in this weekend’s action. Top-ranked Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers and 2008 San Francisco champions Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal are the only two teams that have advanced to the semifinals in San Francisco.

24 teams in each gender will compete this weekend, with 23 seeded directly into the main draw. The final spot will go to the winner of Thursday's Barefoot Wine AVPNext Championship Cup, a 16-team single-elimination tournament. For more on the AVPNext Championship cup, click here.

Comcast Sports Net Bay Area will televise the championship matches live Sunday, beginning with the women at 2 p.m. PDT and followed by the men at approximately 3:30 p.m. PDT. Both finals will also be televised on Versus on Aug. 22 at 3 p.m. EDT and Aug. 26 at 5 p.m. EDT.

avpTV will stream approximately 12 hours of free live HD action from San Francisco. Saturday, avpTV will stream from Feature Court 1 from approximately 3 p.m.-9 p.m. EDT. Sunday, avpTV will stream from approximately 1:45 p.m. EDT through the end of the competition, including women's and men's semifinals from Feature Court 1 and both title matches from Stadium Court. Click here to get avpTV!