BERKELEY – California earned the No. 4 seed, a first-round bye and a quarterfinal meeting with fifth-seeded Washington State to open the Pac-12 Championship this week in Ojai, California. The 11-8 Golden Bears will face 20-6 WSU on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. at the Weil Tennis Academy, less than two weeks after beating the Cougars during the regular season in Pullman, Washington.
 
Cal finished 6-4 in the Pac-12 regular season, while the Cougars were 5-5.
 
The Pac-12 Championship starts on Wednesday with matches featuring the Nos. 6-11 seeds. After Thursday's quarterfinals, the semifinals take place on Friday. At 1 p.m. on Friday, the winner of the Cal-WSU match faces the winner of the quarterfinal between top-seeded Stanford and either eighth-seeded Washington or ninth-seeded Colorado in one semifinal. The final of the conference tournament will take place on Saturday at 12 p.m. at Libbey Park, with the champion claiming the Pac-12's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Pac-12 Networks will broadcast the final.
 
Live sores are available here.

For more information on the 2018 Pac-12 Women's Tennis Championship, please visit the conference's tournament site here.
 
Last season, Cal reached the final in the first year of the Pac-12 team tournament. Previously, the Pac-12 hosted singles and doubles championship tournaments. In the 2017 championship match, the second-seeded Bears ran into rival and top-seeded Stanford. Cal star Karla Popovic beat Melissa Lord, 6-3, 6-3, at court-two singles, but the Cardinal wound up winning, 4-1.
 
Poll Position
Cal is ranked 45th and Washington State is ranked 48th in Tuesday's Oracle ITA team poll.
 
Four Bears are ranked in this week's Oracle ITA singles rankings: Freshman Julia Rosenqvist (13-8) is 38th, freshman Anna Bright (34-9) is 42nd, junior Olivia Hauger (23-7) is 47th and senior Karla Popovic (1-2) is 84th. The pair of Hauger and Rosenqvist (5-6) is ranked 50th in doubles.
 
Last Time Out: Cal Falls In The Big Slam
Forty-second-ranked California ended the regular season with a 4-0 loss at No. 20 Stanford on April 20 on the Farm. The Cardinal clinched the victory, the Pac-12 regular-season title and the Pac-12 tournament's top seed when 22nd-ranked Michaela Gordon beat 34th-ranked Cal freshman Julia Rosenqvist, 6-2, 6-4, at court-one singles.
 
Earlier in doubles, Cal freshmen Anna Bright and Vivian Glozman upset the 56th-ranked duo of Caroline Lampl and Kimberly Yee, 7-5, on court two. But the Cardinal clinched the point when Melissa Lord and Janice Shin defeated Cal junior Maria Smith and freshman Hana Mraz, 7-5, on court three.
 
Last Time Against The Cougars
Olivia Hauger clinched the Bears' 4-3 victory over the Cougars on April 14 in Pullman, Washington, when the junior defeated Guzal Yusupova, 6-4, 7-6(4), at court-two singles inside the Hollingbery Fieldhouse. The Bears lost the doubles point, as the Cougars clinched when Melissa Ates and Barbora Michalkova upset the 36th-ranked Hauger and freshman Julia Rosenqvist, 6-3, on court one.
 
But Cal rallied in singles. The 36th-ranked Anna Bright (on court 3), the 40th-ranked Rosenqvist (court 1) and junior Maria Smith (court 4) all posted 6-2, 6-2 wins to give Cal a 3-1 lead before Hauger – the reigning Pac-12 Player of the Week – secured the match.
 
Hauger, Rosenqvist Named Pac-12 Players of the Week
Olivia Hauger claimed her first Pac-12 Player of the Week honor on April 10, as the conference lauded the Cal junior for her play in the Bears' 7-0 win over Sacramento State and 5-2 upset of then-No. 26 Oregon in Berkeley.
 
Against the Hornets on April 5, the 48th-ranked pair of Hauger and Julia Rosenqvist clinched the doubles point with a 6-2 victory over Maria Fernanda Gonzalez and Carolina Chernyetsky on court one. In singles, the 44th-ranked Hauger defeated Gonzalez, 6-2, 6-2, on court two.
 
Two days later against the Ducks, Hauger and Rosenqvist topped Shweta Sangwan and Julia Eshet, 6-1, at court-one doubles. Hauger then knocked off Julia Lilien, 7-5, 6-0, at court-three singles.
 
This marks the first Pac-12 Player of the Week honor for Hauger and Cal's conference-leading 41st weekly award. It's the Bears' second Pac-12 honor this year, including Julia Rosenqvist's award on March 13, which the freshman earned after posting upset victories in singles and in doubles against USC on March 9 and UCLA on March 10.