CARY, N.C. — All-American Berta Passola Folch clinched the No. 21 California women's tennis team's 4-2 victory over Florida State on Thursday in the ACC Championship third round to send the Golden Bears to a rematch with 13th-ranked NC State in Friday's quarterfinals at Cary Tennis Park.
 
Passola Folch – this season's NCAA Singles Championship runner-up – defeated Mary Boyce Deatherage 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to complete Cal's conference tournament opener.
 
The sixth-seeded Bears' improved their record to 12-6 and set up their second meeting of the year with the Wolfpack (19-7), which beat the Bears 4-1 in Berkeley during the regular season. Fourteenth-seeded Florida State fell to 7-17.
 
Thursday's match featured a close battle for the doubles point. First, the Cal pair of Passola Folch and Naomi Xu beat Abby Kelliher and Tina Li 6-3 on Court 2, and then FSU won on Court 3 to leave Court 1 to decide matters. The 56th-ranked Mao Mushika and Johanne Svendsen edged Laura Putz and Eva Shaw 7-5 to clinch the point for the Bears.
 
Cal dropped two of the first three singles matches – with 93rd-ranked Mushika besting Li 6-2, 6-1 on Court 3 – to leave the overall match tied 2-2.
 
The Bears' Svendsen – back from international duty with Denmark in the Billie Jean King Cup – followed with a win on Court 1. The 34th-ranked freshman topped 106th-ranked Shaw 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 to give Cal a 3-2 advantage.
 
Passola Folch then posted her first clinching win of the season to send Cal to its quarterfinal meeting with NC State on Friday at 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET.
 
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