Dev Navani

Cal sophomore No. 41 Julia Rosenqvist earned the only win for the Bears on Monday, swiftly knocking out UCF’s No. 40 Valeriya Zeleva.

No. 17 Cal women’s tennis lost in a 4-0 sweep to hosts No. 6 Pepperdine Waves to end their team season on Saturday in Malibu.

Cal met USC for the third time this year in this conference playoff match and lost for the second time. Despite having higher-ranked singles and doubles players than the Trojans, this did not translate into winning play for the Bears.

The Bears have split the season series so far with the Trojans, winning in earlier nonconference play at home but dropping the official Pac-12 match on the road.

Cal (12-7, 6-4) lost the first six points of the match before their lone highlight of the day — sophomore Anna Bright (No. 119) and her upset win over Stanford’s Emily Arbuthnott (No. 36) on court four singles.

Ending the regular season with a win is always great. But ending the regular season with a conference win against your biggest rival that also happens to be a top-five team in the country? That would take the cake.

No. 17 Cal women’s tennis (12-6, 6-3) found its second and third consecutive wins in the Pac-12 this weekend.

No. 17 Cal women’s tennis (10-6, 4-3) will face unranked Colorado (10-10, 3-4) on Friday and No. 46 Utah (11-8, 2-5) on Sunday for its eighth and ninth Pac-12 matches of the season.

The Bears are certainly capable of playing at that level, as evidenced by their early season upsets against then-No. 11 Florida and then-No. 7 Pepperdine.

The nice thing about playing in a tough conference is that there is always another opportunity to play top-level competition and earn a quality win. No. 19 Cal women’s tennis (9-5, 3-2) will have that chance this weekend at home against No. 15 Washington (15-1, 5-0) and No. 36 Washington State (17-5, 2-3).