As the saying goes, “all good things must come to an end.” Those words once again ring true for this Cal beach volleyball team. The regular season has come to a close, and now the No. 9 ranked Bears will try and continue their special season by making a run in the Pac-12 championships this week.

The Pac-12 championships is the postseason tournament that features the nine beach volleyball programs in the conference with the end goal of crowning one team as the conference champion. Last year, USC took home the title at Bear Down Beach in Arizona. This year’s tournament will be held at Stanford as USC eyes a repeat championship win.

After going 2-2 in the final weekend of the regular season, the Bears look to find some momentum in the early part of this week and gear up for the quick turnaround, as the tournament begins Wednesday. Cal enters the tournament as the No. 3 seed in the Pac-12, behind only Southern California powerhouses UCLA and USC.

Cal did manage to secure a spot just one place ahead of its rival, Stanford, too. The aim now is to back up its seed with quality of play. As the third seed, Cal will face the sixth seed in the first round of the championships, which this year is Arizona State.

The Bears faced the Sun Devils just over two weeks ago in Stanford, winning that match 4-1. If the Bears can replicate that score, they will move on to face the winner of Arizona and USC. The tournament is double elimination: Even if a team loses once, there is still an opportunity to win it, but the path will be much more complicated.

This year’s tournament features six top-20 programs, with UCLA leading the way as the nation’s No.1. It will be a highly competitive tournament and one that could definitely affect national rankings. With national championship spots on the line, there is a lot at stake this week for teams in contention, including a nationals bid.

This Cal team features many Pac-12 championship veterans. This experience should prove valuable to calm the team’s nerves, especially given the deep run Cal made at last year’s tournament: Cal made it to the semifinals before losing to runner-up UCLA. This year, the team hopes to make an even deeper run to win a conference championship after a stellar 25-8 season.