WACO, Texas – For the second straight year, California's run in the NCAA team tournament ended with a 4-3 loss to Stanford indoors in the round of 16, with the 14th-seeded and 14th-ranked Cardinal upsetting the third-seeded and third-ranked Golden Bears on Friday at host Baylor's Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center. The Bears (22-4) defeated its Pac-12 rival twice during the 2014-15 regular season, but the third time was the charm for Stanford, as Cal finished the team portion of its season with a 22-4 record.

Friday's match ended when Cal's fourth-ranked sophomore Maegan Manasse fell at court-one singles to Stanford's second-ranked Carol Zhao, 6-2, 5-7, 6-1.

“It was a great match,” Cal head coach Amanda Augustus said. “Anytime we play our traditional rival its great tennis, it's a tough match and it's well fought. You never know which court it's going to come down to. If we would've been able to get through this match, we had a really good shot. But credit to Stanford; they were really ready to go today.

“We had an outstanding season team wise. We should finish in the top five in the country in the final rankings, which would be an improvement over where we finished last year (10th). When you're in the top 10 in the country, it takes a lot of work moving up each spot in the rankings. Holding a top-five ranking a majority of the season showed how hard this team worked and how much the players wanted it.”

Rain in Waco moved the match from the Hurd Tennis Center outdoors to the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center, where the match began roughly four and a half hours after it was originally slated to start. Exactly one year ago today – before Cal faced Stanford in the 2014 NCAA round of 16 – rain moved the match from the University of Georgia's outdoor courts in Athens, Georgia, to the indoor courts at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

Augustus said neither the delay nor the move indoors had an adverse effect on the Bears.

“We're two really good teams, and we battled, and they just had a better day today,” she said.

Stanford (18-5) advances to play Georgia in the quarterfinal round on Sunday at 12 p.m. CT.

Manasse, senior Zsofi Susanyi, junior Klara Fabikova and sophomore Denise Starr next play in the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships that start May 20 in Waco.

Unlike in Cal's last four meetings with Stanford – last year's regular-season finale, the round of 16 match and this year's regular-season matches – the Bears lost the doubles point to the Cardinal in Waco. Junior Lynn Chi and freshman Karla Popovic won the first doubles match for the Bears, 8-1, over Krista Hardebeck and Lindsey Kostas on court three. But in clash of top-10 powerhouses, Stanford's 10th-ranked Caroline Doyle and Ellen Tsay beat Cal's fifth-ranked Susanyi and Fabikova, 8-4, on court two, and then the  second-ranked pair of Zhao and Taylor Davidson held off the seventh-ranked duo of Manasse and Starr, 8-6, on court one to secure the point.

“Stanford did a great job in doubles,” Augustus said. “There was outstanding tennis on courts one and two with four top-10 doubles teams, and we earned a solid win on court three.”

Cal lost the first set in four of the six singles matches. But the Bears wound up winning on those other two courts to give Cal a 2-1 lead. The 103rd-ranked Popovic got Cal on the scoreboard with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Kostas on court six before the 43rd-ranked Susanyi won her seventh consecutive match against Hardebeck, 6-1, 6-1, on court four.

The up and down contest went Stanford's way in the next two matches, as the 18th-ranked Fabikova lost to the 19th-ranked Davidson, 6-4, 6-0, on court two and then the 44th-ranked Starr fell to the 25th-ranked Doyle, 6-4, 6-4, on court three to move Stanford ahead, 3-2.

On court five, the 50th-ranked Chi rebounded from a first-set loss to Tsay to win 12 of the next 13 games in an eventual 6-7(2), 6-0, 6-1 victory. That result knotted the overall match at 3-3 – until the battle between top-five players on the top court swung the match to Stanford.

“In singles we fought; we rallied,” Augustus said. “I was really proud of Zsofi and Karla winning, and then Lynn, after a slow start, coming up with big win for us. Maegan fought really hard but came up just short against a tough opponent and fellow top-five player in Carol Zhao. It's unfortunate we had to meet in the round of 16. But that's how the draw shakes out. We respect them. Stanford's from our conference, and we wish them well going forward.”