It was an expectation.

The team has made the Sweet 16 for seven consecutive years — including the last six, with Amanda Augustus as head coach. The Bears’ regular season, like the six seasons before it, has been nothing more than an opening act for the main event.

“Going to the Sweet 16 is part of the culture on our team,” Augustus said.

On Friday, No. 8 Cal will face No. 9 Alabama, whose team made it to the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history.

For the Bears, the question is still the same as it has been all season: Can they go all the way and deliver Cal its first NCAA championship?

It is not out of the question. As a No. 8 seed, Cal advanced to the title match in 2008 and again in 2009 as the No. 9 seed. Ever since those impressive seasons — Augustus’ first two years as the coach — the Bears have been unable to return to the finals.

As the seeding indicates, the Bears will be the favorite in their matchup against the Crimson Tide. Alabama does not have a singles player on its roster ranked in the top 25, while Cal has both No. 5 Zsofi Susanyi and No. 8 Anett Schutting in the top 10.

The Crimson Tide will be the second SEC opponent that the Bears will play in a row and the second team from the state of Alabama. The Cal squad swept Auburn, 4-0, last Saturday at the Hellman Tennis Complex in Berkeley.

If Cal bests the Crimson Tide (21-5) in Urbana, Ill., on Friday, its path will become much more daunting. The Bears will likely have to face top-seeded Florida on Sunday, should they make it to the Elite 8.

The good news for Cal is that the team has been producing its best tennis now than it has been all season. The Bears (18-5) are riding on an eight-match win streak and have brought home 13 victories in their last 14 dual matches.

“If we’re not peaking now, I don’t know,” Augustus said after the Auburn match. “And it seems as some of our health issues are at a place where we can handle them.”

As late as it is in the season, the Bears are healthiest they have ever been. Cal’s top player, fifth-ranked Susanyi, has been in and out of the lineup with a hip flexor injury. Meanwhile, freshman Klara Fabikova, who plays on the No. 2 court in singles and doubles, was hampered early in the season, along with senior Annie Goransson.

All those players were on the court last weekend and appeared to be at full strength.

“I felt good to be back on the court,” Susanyi said. “I feel like I’m 100 percent, and I’m so excited to play.”

The Bears are ready. As they’ve known all along, their dedication and effort all season have been leading up to this weekend.

“We’ll work hard and prepare as we have all season,” Augustus said. “Now it’s just who wants it more.”

Riley McAtee covers women’s tennis. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org

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The Bears will also be bringing a good dose of Cal spirit with them.

The team has a tradition unlike any other — when the postseason rolls around, players spray-paint their tennis shoes blue and gold in honor of the university they play for and represent.

“Everyone kind of puts their own spin on it,” says coach Amanda Augustus, whose kicks are also a bright blue and gold. “But it has to be school colors.”

Some choose an electric gold that mirrors the state’s California poppies paired with a true and bright Yale blue — the two sources that the University of California borrowed its colors from. Other players are a little more subtle, preferring a metallic gold that doesn’t catch the eye as much but still stands out on the courts of Hellman Tennis Complex.

Some players take their Cal spirit beyond their footwear. Sophomore Zsofi Susanyi and freshman Klara Fabikova had blue streaks in their normally blond hair last weekend. Each also painted her nails in the university’s colors, alternating blue and gold for each finger.

Even the athletic tape that the players wore this weekend — normally green or pink — was shades of either blue or gold.

But the longest-standing tradition is definitely the shoes. Augustus says that the tradition predates her time as a player for Cal in the late ’90s. Her coach back then — the legendary Jan Brogan, who led the Bears to 25 NCAA appearances — also couldn’t pinpoint an exact date.

“I would be guessing as I coached for 29 years,” Brogan says. “But I can pin it down to the Lisa Albano era.”

Lisa Albano played for Cal from 1988 to 1992, placing the shoe-painting tradition at more than 20 years old.

Augustus carries on the tradition, having her players lay cardboard down on the track in Edwards Stadium so that they can spray paint their shoes. They have to paint a few weeks before the postseason begins, or else the shoes won’t be dry in time.

But the Bears haven’t had to worry about jinxing their postseason chances or painting the shoes prematurely yet — in Augustus’ six seasons as head coach, her teams haven’t missed the postseason once.

Cal’s rivals have caught on to the tradition and have started doing something similar, but the players maintain that the idea originated in Berkeley.

“We did it first,” says sophomore Cecilia Estlander. “USC and UCLA have kind of started doing it, but we did it first.”

Riley McAtee covers women’s tennis. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org

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They leave in a much different situation.

Zsofi Susanyi, the No. 5 player in the nation, left her third singles match of the weekend with an injury. Susanyi was battling a hip flexor injury all spring that kept her bouncing in and out of the lineup from week to week.

The details and extent of her injury are unknown at this time — she may have reaggravated her hip or be suffering from something else entirely. But if she misses significant time, it will be a huge blow to a Cal squad that had just begun to find its groove with its star player back in the lineup.

Cal also had two other players in the main singles tournament — Anett Schutting and Klara Fabikova. The two met in the third round of matches, with Schutting taking down the freshman Fabikova, 6-2, 6-4.

Schutting then advanced to take on Krista Hardebeck of Stanford in the semifinals but lost, 6-4, 6-2.

Schutting also competed with her partner Lynn Chi in the doubles championships, where the story was similar. In that tournament, Schutting and Chi were also able to advance to the semifinals but lost to USC’s top duo of Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria, who were the top-seeded team coming into the the tournament.

The bright spot of the tournament for the Bears came in the doubles invitational tournament — essentially the tournament for the doubles teams aren’t able to make the main event.

In that tournament, the doubles duo of Annie Goransson and Cecilia Estlander were able to reach the finals. Estlander has rarely played in the spring due to injuries, and the duo had never actually played together before, but they were able to shine.

To get to the finals, Goransson and Estlander had to defeat the top-ranked duo of USC’s Gabi Desimone and Danielle Lao in a 9-7 thriller.

After that, they quickly advanced to the finals and faced the third-seeded duo of Calli Craig and Sarah Pham out of Utah. This match went to the wire. Both teams traded points back and forth until Goransson and Estlander fell 9-8(5) in a tiebreaker.

With that loss, the Bears fell short of their goal of taking home a championship in both of the tournaments.

But the real loss is losing Susanyi. Several Cal players admitted that finally having her back at full strength gave them a boost in confidence. Their confidence has to be taking a hit with Susanyi out yet again.

The good news for the Bears is that they have a week off for Susanyi to get healthy. The NCAAs are the last games that Cal will play all year, but that doesn’t start until well into May. Depending on the extent of her injury, Susanyi could make it back by then.

But tennis is a game of rhythm. Any player who comes back from time off needs matches to get into the groove again — a luxury Susanyi won’t have.

With Susanyi once again missing time, the Bears are left in the same place they were in at the beginning of the season — searching for a way to win without their top player.

Riley McAtee covers women’s tennis. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org

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But before the players can do that, they have one last match to play.

Due to a scheduling quirk, Cal (15-5, 9-1 in the Pac-12) will take on UCSB in Santa Barbara at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Though the Gauchos (14-7) have put together a decent record over the season, their schedule has been filled with unranked and unaccomplished teams. Without a ranked player on the roster, they will have a tough chance competing against Cal, which has four ranked players and two in the top 10.

The match is an odd hiccup for the Bears in a schedule otherwise consisting of weekend matches. But the Tuesday match gives them a chance to hone their skills for the postseason. Two days after the UCSB match, the team will be in Ojai, Calif., for the Pac-12 Championships.

After the win over Stanford, the Cal team feels like it is close to peaking, and the players plan to use this UCSB match as a springboard to bring their level of play to its full potential.

“I think we’re finally gelling the way we need to,” said Cal coach Amanda Augustus. “Our goal is to peak in the (NCAA) Tournament.”

The match gives many of the players a chance to practice more in doubles, in which Cal has lost the doubles point in both of its last two matches. Zsofi Susanyi recently returned from injury, and her getting more playing time with her doubles partner, Klara Fabikova, should help the duo gel the way Augustus wants.

“(Susanyi and Fabikova) just need matches,” Augustus said. “Hopefully next week, they get a lot of matches doubleswise to just kinda get them better in sync.”

Those two in sync will be a huge asset for the team. The Cal team has been regularly facing 1-0 deficits going into singles play as a result of losses in doubles.

But while the Bears are struggling in doubles, they are dominating in singles action. The team has won at least four of the six singles courts in its last four matches. Cal has used that dominance to bail itself out of early deficits and win matches.

Susanyi back on the court is a boost for the entire team. As the current No. 5 singles player in the country, Susanyi at full strength gives the other players a leap in confidence.

“Now that we have Zsofi back, we can definitely see what is possible for us,” said senior Tayler Davis. “Because before, without her, I think we weren’t as confident.”

A win against UCSB would build off the momentum that Cal gained from beating Stanford and would send the team into the postseason with a six-game winning streak and as much confidence as any team in the field.

“I think we’ve prepared really well and worked so hard for a long time now,” said senior Annie Goransson. “We’ll just see how far we can take it.”

Riley McAtee covers women’s tennis. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org

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Rivalry match? Check. Top-15 teams? Check. Possible title on the line? Check.

When the Cal women’s tennis team takes on Stanford on Friday at the Hellman Tennis Complex at 12:30 p.m., the stakes will be as high as they have been for any match this season.

The match could determine a share of the conference title.

At the same time Cal and Stanford are battling, USC will be playing its own rival in UCLA. If the Trojans lose that match, then the winner of the Cal-Stanford match will share the Pac-12 title with USC.

Although USC is favored over UCLA and beat the Bruins earlier in the season, anything can happen in a rivalry match — something the No. 9 Bears are fully aware of.

Despite Cal’s superior ranking, the No. 12 Cardinal (16-3, 8-1 in the Pac-12) have had the Bears’ number in recent years.

Cal has dropped its last seven dual meets against the Cardinal. The Bears (14-5, 8-1) have not beaten Stanford since April of 2009 — including a loss to the Cardinal in Palo Alto in March.

In that loss, Cal was without sophomore Zsofi Susanyi and senior Annie Goransson, both of whom will play in Friday’s tilt.

Susanyi is the No. 5 singles player in the country, and since her return from injury, she has yet to drop a singles match.

Goransson returned immediately after that match against Stanford and has gone 7-2 in singles since, jumping between courts No. 5 and No. 6.

The return of those two players gives the Bears the advantage of being able to tinker with their lineup in ways they couldn’t in their last match with the Cardinal.

“We’re making a couple of adjustments in doubles,” said Cal Coach Amanda Augustus. “And we’ll definitely give Stanford a different look singleswise.”

It’s been so long since Cal beat Stanford that the two seniors on the squad — Goransson and Tayler Davis — have never done so.

Unless Cal ends up hosting the first rounds of the NCAAs, this will be its last match in Hellman as well as its last chance to knock off Stanford.

“Annie and Tay have contributed tremendously to the success of the program over the last four years,” Augustus said. “To have both of our seniors out there on the court competing on senior day is exciting.”

For Goransson, beating Stanford for the first time in her four years at Cal would be the ultimate farewell.

“That would be pretty big,” Goransson said. “I know we have a good chance, and if we were to beat them, though, that would mean a lot to me. And a lot to the team.”

But Goransson is not focused on the end of her career just yet. She is still working so that Cal can have success in the tournaments that come after the regular season.

“(Playing tennis for Cal has) meant so much to me, it’s hard to express it,” Goransson said. “But I’m not thinking too much about it right now because we have the NCAAs and everything coming up.”

Riley McAtee covers women’s tennis. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org

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Women’s tennis on the west coast is dominated by Cal, Stanford, USC and UCLA, teams that are consistently ranked among the top in the country. The Sun Devils (15-3, 5-2 in the Pac-12) are usually in the top 25, but each year, they are unable to crack the top four.

A win for No. 21 Arizona State on Friday over the No. 11 Bears would finally place them among those elite teams.

Meanwhile, the match will give Cal (12-5, 6-1) a chance to climb back into the top-10 teams in the country — the place at which it started the season.

After taking on the Sun Devils in the desert on Friday at 1:30 p.m., the Bears will then take on Arizona (9-11, 1-6) on Saturday at noon.

While the Wildcats shouldn’t be too much trouble, the Sun Devils will prove a challenge for Cal.

Arizona State plays an aggressive style of tennis, especially in doubles. By playing close to the net, its players can force quick points that can surprise a team. The Sun Devils also limit their opponent’s options by keeping them toward the center of the court.

“They’re usually very good in doubles,” said Cal coach Amanda Augustus. “They’re always very well-coached, and they make adjustments, especially during the match.”

The aggressive doubles play from Arizona State will prove to be most of the challenge the Bears will face. Last weekend, Cal’s top doubles duo of Anett Schutting and Lynn Chi was uncharacteristically pushed to the brink against an unranked Oregon duo.

The Bears will find out whether last week’s struggles are a pattern or an aberration when Chui and Schutting play Arizona State’s top pair of Jacqueline Cako and Nicole Smith, who hold a 12-3 record on the season.

On the No. 2 doubles court, Cal will also face a challenge. Klara Fabikova has been playing on that court in doubles all year, but her usual partner — Zsofi Susanyi — has been in and out of the lineup with a hip flexor injury.

Susanyi was able to return to doubles last weekend with Fabikova in an 8-1 win but was pulled from singles. Augustus is optimistic that the duo can be back on the court once again on Friday.

“Zsofi’s had a great week, so I think she’s super excited to get back out there,” said Augustus. “They need matches together, and I think, hopefully, they’ll gel.”

The good news for Cal is that the Bears are very familiar with the Sun Devils. In the fall, Arizona State sends many of its players north to compete in Cal’s fall tournament, and later in the semester, the Bears return the favor and send many of their players to Arizona. As a result, players on both squads are familiar with the opposing play style.

And as luck would have it, Cal will be more familiar than usual with the hot, dry weather that they will face in Arizona as well.

“It was ironic because we kinda had a windy, hot week here in Berkeley,” said Augustus, “but that’s good preparation for the conditions that we’ll face in the desert.”

Riley McAtee covers women’s tennis. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org.

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If the Bears can close out the season without a loss, all they need is for USC to lose one match to claim a share of what would be their first-ever Pac-12 title.

So when the Cal women’s tennis team begins the final stretch of their season as they host Oregon at 1:30 p.m. on Friday at Hellman Tennis Complex, they will be looking ahead. Only four matches are left, and the Pac-12 title is within reach for the Bears.

No. 11 Cal (11-5, 5-1) will be a huge favorite against an Oregon squad (11-6, 1-5) that has struggled since the start of Pac-12 play. The Ducks have only one ranked player and have lost to several opponents that the Bears have crushed. Cal’s goal in this match will be to prepare itself for the next two weeks — a road trip to Arizona and a final home match against Stanford.

“We’re just starting our next segment of the season of this month of kind of building through this week, given we only have this one match,” said Cal coach Amanda Augustus.

Though a victory against Oregon is nearly assured, the team is treating the match seriously to prepare them for the next two weeks against tougher opponents who will likely prove a challenge.

“Usually, their top couple of girls are pretty good — they’re just maybe not as deep as other teams,” said Augustus. “I think they like quick points. They’re fairly aggressive in doubles.”

With a short week — only one match instead of the usual two — and an easy matchup, the team has long-term goals in mind. After the Pac-12 title is handed out at the end of the season, the Pac-12 Championships tournament will take place the next week in Ojai. Two weeks after that will be the NCAAs in Illinois.

Augustus calls this the final segment of the team’s schedule.

“We periodize our schedule,” she said. “This is our last work-hard, improve-each-week segment, and then we have Pac-12s. Our final cycle is NCAAs that go through the end of May.”

The purpose of these periodizations is to have the team ready to peak at the right times.

“We have so many matches all year long, and you obviously can’t play your best every single week,” said Augustus. “So we set up different phases, and for us in our last segment, it was to peak and be ready for the UCLA and USC matches.”

In this final segment of the regular season, the goal is to peak for the Stanford match and the subsequent Pac-12s. Stanford also has only one loss in the conference and is in the same position as Cal — it just needs USC to lose once to be in the hunt for the title.

The Cardinal has won or shared the Pac-12 title for 14 of the last 15 years. It’s very likely that the match that decides this year’s title will be the season finale against Cal.

The road to that finale — and the title — begins at home against the Ducks.

Riley McAtee covers women’s tennis. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org

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The excitement of her return for Cal fans can only be matched by the excitement from Susanyi herself. For the last month, she could be seen in the stands of the Hellman Tennis Complex doing her homework. With her return, she was finally back in her natural element.

Cal (10-4, 4-0 in the Pac-12) dominated Colorado and Utah at Berkeley this weekend as expected, sweeping both matches 7-0. But all eyes were on Susanyi, and her return was not as easy as the overall match scores would suggest.

Susanyi started by playing doubles with freshman Klara Fabikova on the second court against Colorado (6-10, 1-5). At first, she looked rusty, and the duo started the match with an early 2-1 deficit. Susanyi’s timing was off and she was regularly hitting shots wide or into the net.

But with the help and encouragement of Fabikova and associate head coach Cordell Ho, Susanyi was able to find her rhythm.

“They were just telling me the right things, they were telling me what to do,” Susanyi said. “Klara and I were able to communicate well and also figure out a gameplan for each point so that worked well.”

Susanyi and Fabikova were able to finish the doubles match with an 8-3 victory.

The next day against the Utes (7-6, 1-4), Susanyi skipped the doubles match to play singles against Utah’s Callie Craig on the third court instead. With Susanyi hoping for a triumphant return, and Craig looking at a rare opportunity to knock off the No. 3 player in the country, the match was intense.

Susanyi dropped four of her first five sets against Craig, falling to an early 4-1 deficit. Again, Susanyi was hitting balls wide or just into the net. Craig was running her up and down the court, and Susanyi was unable to get aggressive.

Midway through the first set, Susanyi hit a ball that looked to be clearly in but was called out by the official. Susanyi disputed the call but to no avail. Just a couple of points later, Susanyi hit a very low bouncing ball that may have hit the court twice.

The official called it a good hit, but Craig tried to dispute it. Even Utah’s Natasha Smith, playing on the fourth court just next door, chimed in.

Around now, Susanyi reworked her strategy and ran away with the match. By working balls toward the middle of the court, Susanyi was able to wait for the shot that she wanted and take advantage. She won the next 11 straight points to finish the match 6-4, 6-0. The Susanyi of old had returned.

When midway through the second set, Susanyi spiked a ball and turned to her coach to flash an ear-to-ear grin. Despite the early struggles and intensity, she was back to doing what she loves.

“It’s so exciting,” Susanyi said. “Now I’m on the court, I feel better, and it’s just really great.”

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Two new starting freshmen and a host of injuries led Cal to start with an uncharacteristically mediocre record of 3-3. However, since then, the squad has won five of its last six. The Bears now have a respectable record of 8-4, including being 2-0 in Pac-12 play.

In their quest for a conference title, the Bears hope to extend that undefeated in-conference streak this weekend when they host Colorado and Utah at the Hellman Tennis Complex in Berkeley. The Bears will face the Buffaloes at 1:30 pm on Friday. On Saturday, Cal will take on Utah (7-5, 1-3) at noon, also at home.

No. 13 Cal will be a heavy favorite in these matches. Colorado (6-8, 1-3) won its first Pac-12 match ever two weeks ago following a winless first season in the conference last year. Utah, meanwhile, ranks well outside of the top 50.

Cal’s slow start was due to the changes the squad had to make early in the season. The Bears are starting two freshmen in both doubles and singles. They’ve dealt with injuries to many key players, including their best player, Zsofi Susanyi, who is still out with a leg injury.

But Cal’s recent play has shown that the team has overcome those changes. Though many opponents during their recent hot stretch have not been top teams — none of them were in the top 25 when Cal played them — the Bears are playing with confidence and chemistry now that they did not have early on.

The doubles team of junior Anett Schutting and freshman Lynn Chi is the perfect example. Since being thrust onto the top court in Susanyi’s absence, the two have delivered a 5-2 record in doubles.

Schutting attributes their recent improvement to their communication and hard work.

“The communication part is very important after a point — what worked, what didn’t work,” the junior from Estonia said. “We’ve just been trying to work on our tactics and what we’re good at and what needs to get better.”

Against Colorado and Utah, the squad will be able to continue working on that chemistry. Even though these should be easier matches, both will provide preparation for tougher schools later down the line.

“We take them more as good practice matches,” Schutting said. She was adamant, however, in maintaining that that does not mean the Bears are taking them lightly.

“For me, it’s not going to be different for who I play, whether it’s Utah or USC,” Schutting said. “Yes, of course there may be more excitement, but I’m going to have the same mental approach.”

Maintaining that mental approach will be key for Cal when it faces tougher teams.

“Every match counts,” said Cal coach Amanda Augustus.

It would be easy to say that this weekend’s matchups count a little less, but they are no less important for the Bears as they work to prepare for the top teams they will be playing soon.

Riley McAtee covers women’s tennis. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org

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But it shouldn’t expect to get one when it hosts Washington State and Washington this weekend.

While Cal (5-4) has historically had great success against both of these teams — with a combined all-time record of 42-4 against the two programs — both northern schools are having fantastic seasons.

Washington State (10-2) is riding a seven-game win streak that has propelled it to its best start since 1986. The Bears will play Washington State at 1:30 p.m. on Friday at Hellman Tennis Complex.

The next day, Cal will play Washington, which is sitting at an impressive 8-3, at noon.

While neither of these squads has wins against top-ranked teams, they are simply too hot right now to assume they will be easy victories as they have been in years past.

These games will finally open up Pac-12 play for the Bears, marking the beginning of their quest for a conference title. While the Bears have had trouble early this season, the start of conference games can be thought of as a kind of reset for them.

“It’s exciting to get into conference matches,” said Cal coach Amanda Augustus. “You look at your record, and it just says 0-0 until you start the conference matches.”

After Cal’s disappointing loss last weekend to Stanford, the start of Pac-12 play may be what the Bears need to rebound.

“I think after we lost to Stanford, everyone is going to be more pumped up to play and practice,” said freshman Klara Fabikova, who has stood out for Cal on the third court this season with a 5-2 singles record. “We’ll have better energy this week.”

While the Bears are looking to return to form, Washington State and Washington will be looking to finally prove themselves against a top team.

The Cougars have not played a team in the top 25 all season. Meanwhile, the Huskies have losses to UCLA and Alabama, both of which are top-10 teams. Beating the Bears could propel either of them into the top 25.

But Washington and Washington State will have their work cut out for them. Home-court advantage for Cal should have a bigger impact than usual. The Bears are an outdoor team, but both WSU and Washington play indoors.

Augustus thinks this makes both teams pretty comparable in play styles, allowing the Cal team to prepare for both of them at once.

“They play indoors a lot, so they play pretty aggressively and fast,” Augustus said. “I think we’ll be ready for that coming off the Stanford team that plays pretty aggressively and fast. We like playing them outside better than when we go up there and play them inside.”

Despite these advantages and Cal’s historical success, the team is not getting ahead of themselves.

“You can’t take any opponent lightly,” Augustus said. “I think you have to come out ready to play and compete each week.”

Riley McAtee covers women’s tennis. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org

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