STANFORD, Calif. - For the second time in two seasons, California defeated Stanford on the Farm with the clinching victory coming on court six - with Cecilia Estlander knocking off Lindsay Kostas, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, to secure Sunday's match. After the Finnish senior gave Cal a 4-2 lead, the Big Slam wound up with eighth-ranked Cal claiming a 4-3 victory over No. 7 Stanford when sophomore Denise Starr fell, 7-5, 6-7(3), 6-2, to Caroline Doyle on court three.

"We're excited with a great team victory today," Cal head coach Amanda Augustus said.

Both teams ended the nonconference affair with 7-2 records. They play their conference dual on April 18 in the regular-season finale in Berkeley.

Stanford, which lost for the first time at home this season, has now lost just six times at home since 1999. Augustus has been involved in three of those Stanford losses, including as a Cal player in 1999.

At the Taube Family Tennis Center, courts four through six are separate from stadium courts one through three, so Estlander couldn't tell what the team score was for much of her singles match.

"But when I heard people cheering for Maegan (Manasse) and Denise, I got the feeling I really had to win my match," the Helsinki product said. "Going into today, I had one mission, and I knew I wanted to beat them here. Also I was using that it was my last match at Stanford to motivate me. I knew that if I got my head straight and focused on my own game, I had a good chance to win the match."

After splitting the first two doubles matches, Cal clinched the doubles point on court two when the 12th-ranked duo of senior Zsofi Susanyi and junior Klara Fabikova beat the 10th-ranked pair of Caroline Doyle/Ellen Tsay, 8-3.

In singles, the first three matches ended in straight sets, with the 42nd-ranked Fabikova upsetting the 13th-ranked Taylor Davidson, 6-1, 6-4, to give Cal a 3-1 lead in the overall match.

But the Big Slam tightened considerably down the stretch, as the final three matches went three sets each.

Court one featured a battle between two of the top four players in the nation, as Cal sophomore Maegan Manasse ? ranked No. 2 ? played Stanford's fourth-ranked Carol Zhao. Last season at Stanford, when Manasse played on court six, she won to clinch Cal's victory and first Pac-12 championship. This time, the third set went to a tiebreaker, with Manasse holding a couple of match points at 6-4. But she fell to Zhao, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(6), to make the overall score 3-2, and leave Estlander or Starr to provide the winner.

Augustus lauded her team.

"We knew we had to play well in doubles, and it good to see us come out well on courts two and three," Augustus said. "Singles was back and forth like we expected. Klara played fantastic and got us off to a really good start. She played really good, smart, dominating tennis. We didn't play as well on court five, but having Zsofi get us on the scoreboard was big as well.

"From there on out all the other courts were so close. Maegan had a couple match points, and that match was going back and forth ? it was really good tennis. The good news was everyone really focused on their own courts today, and that allowed the team to stay focused."

Augustus added, "Having two seniors and a junior put our singles points on the board was great to see. Our younger ones learned a lot from that seeing that battle."

Cal opens the Pac-12 Conference season when it hosts Colorado on Friday and Utah on Saturday at the Hellman Tennis Complex.