OAKLAND – The Cal women's rowing team fell to Stanford in all three races Saturday in the annual Big Row on the Oakland Estuary.

Racing on the estuary for the first time in 25 years, the Cardinal defeated the Bears in the varsity eight race 5:58 to 6:05. Stanford won the second varsity eight competition by nine seconds and the varsity four race 6:39-6:54.

"Without the training in the fall, it's a little bit of a challenge to figure out what exactly is going to happen during the race season," Cal head coach Al Acosta said. "But I think the tam is pretty positive about their ability to make some improvements, and I'm positive about that, too. I think our training has been good this spring. We just need to make some adjustments and see where that takes us. We will see how they will respond. I'm confident they will."

As they do every year in the Big Row, the Bears dedicated Saturday's races to Jill Costello, the former Cal coxswain who passed away in 2010 at the age of 22 after a battle with lung cancer. Cal's rowers wore "Team Jill" tank tops and the races were attended by Costello's parents, Jim and Mary.

"We do our best to carry on Jill's legacy," Acosta said. "We talk a lot about it and we share stories and perspectives from Jill's teammates. When you see Jill's parents here, it just drives it home a little bit deeper. We love having them at our races. It's very special."

The Bears return to competition next Saturday in the Windermere Cup against the University of Washington in Seattle.