TUCSON, Ariz. – California opened its road trip with a 6-1 victory over host Arizona, as Golden Bear junior Maria Smith clinched with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Marie Van Aelst.
 
Cal improved to 8-5 (4-1 Pac-12), while the Wildcats fell to 9-9 (0-4 Pac-12).
 
The Bears captured the doubles point, as first Cal freshmen Anna Bright and Vivian Glozman beat Van Aelst and Gitte Heynemans, 6-3, on court two and then the 52nd-ranked Cal duo of junior Olivia Hauger and freshman Julia Rosenqvist clinched the point against Devin Chypha and Camila Westbrooks, 6-2, on court one.
 
The home team tied the match at 1-1 when Sophia Thomas defeated Cal freshman Hana Mraz at court-six singles, 7-5, 6-2.
 
But then the 36th-ranked Rosenqivst bested Chypha, 6-3, 7-5, on court one and Glozman bested Heynemans, 6-4, 6-4, on court five to lift Cal to a 3-1 lead, until Smith secured the match with her court-four result.
 
At 28-8, Smith has compiled the second-most singles wins for Cal in 2017-18 (behind Bright, who's 30-9), and the Houston native is having her best season in her third year as a Bear.
 
"Last summer Maria really competed a lot and worked on her game," Cal head coach Amanda Augustus said. "That's what you need to be doing to be successful at this level. She's also learned how to win matches even when she's not playing her best tennis that day. To have an upperclassmen setting an example like that is really good for everyone to see."
 
Cal tacked on wins by the 34th-ranked Bright (over Arizona's Westbrooks, 6-1, 5-7, 6-1) and by the 36th-ranked Hauger (over Paris Corley, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3) to make the final score 6-1.
 
On Saturday, the Bears play another conference match at Arizona State at 12 p.m. MST.
 
"It's always really good to come down here and play matches in the desert," Augustus said. "Both teams play really hard. Today we did a pretty good job coming out in doubles, and we're starting to settle into our doubles pairings much better. And then in the singles we really built upon that. I really like the way that even when the other team made some adjustments, we did a better job of resetting and finishing off those games or those sets."