WACO, Texas – In the last match of the college season, Zsofi Susanyi and Klara Fabikova capped an excellent year for California with a loss to the defending national champions in the NCAA doubles final on Monday at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center. The fifth-ranked  and Nos. 5-8-seeded Golden Bears fell to the top-seeded and top-ranked Maya Jansen and Erin Routliffe from Alabama, 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-3.

Rain delayed the matches - including both the men's and women's singles finals - and forced the action to move from the outdoors courts at Baylor's Hurd Tennis Center to the indoor facility. Once the women's singles final ended, a tornado warning forced a brief evacuation of the Hawkins courts. Scheduled to start at approximately 2 p.m. CT, the women's doubles final eventually began around 4:45 p.m. CT at Hawkins.

Fabikova and Susanyi were trying to win the sixth NCAA doubles title in program history, but in the end, the Alabama pair repeated as national champion.

The two Bears end the year with a 36-7 record and doubles All-America honors.

“They had a tremendous season and tremendous run,” Cal head coach Amanda Augustus said. “They're NCAA finalists and All-Americans, and all the things they accomplished this year is really important to emphasize. They fought really hard yet again today. The other team just won a couple more points when they needed it. We stretched that match as long as we could. I'm proud we were competing on the last day of the season.”

“It was definitely a great honor to be able to play in the final,” said Fabikova, a junior from Brno, Czech Republic. “I just enjoyed every single match. I was happy to be able to play with Zsofi till the last day of the tournament. Of course I'm disappointed we didn't win the match, but we still had a great season and won a lot of matches.”

“It was amazing to play for the championship,” Susanyi said. “A couple times I couldn't even believe it. It hasn't hit me that it's over.”

Susanyi, a senior, completed her college career with the match. Along with her singles All-America honor from this postseason, the Szeged, Hungary, native wound up with five All-America honors in her four years at Cal.

“She's had a tremendous career,” Augustus said. “Zsofi's an unbelievable competitor and is a joy to coach. It speaks highly of her when coaches of other schools congratulate her on the tremendous career she's had. She won't be leaving yet – she won't graduate till December - but I'm really proud of everything she's accomplished.”

What will Susanyi miss the most?

“I'm definitely going to miss competing with the team,” she said. “Tennis is an individual sport, but when you have eight other girls and coaches by your side, it's definitely something different.”