LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The 23rd-ranked California women's tennis team edged 13th-ranked USC in doubles to take an early 1-0 lead in their NCAA Championship second-round match Saturday at Marks Tennis Stadium. But after a struggle in singles, the Golden Bears ultimately lost to the host Trojans 4-1 to end a stellar season.
 
Cal finished 2025-26 with a 13-8 record, while USC improved to 21-6 and advanced to next week's NCAA Super Regionals.
 
The Bears earned the first win of the day when the pair of Mille Johanna Moerk and Johanne Svendsen defeated Dani Borruel and Eugenia Zozaya 6-1 on Court 3. On Court 2, Cal junior Mao Mushika partnered with Anya Murthy – a former Trojan who was playing against her former team for the first time since joining Cal – but the Bears lost to Emma Charney and Immi Haddad 6-1 to leave Court 1 to decide the doubles point. Senior Berta Passola Folch and sophomore Naomi Xu battled the Trojans' 27th-ranked Lily Fairclough and Krisha Mahendran on the top court before prevailing 7-5 and sending Cal into singles with its 1-0 advantage.
 
In singles, USC won three matches in straight sets to take a 3-1 lead. With three matches remaining, Cal led in the third sets on two of the courts – Court 2, where 22nd-ranked Passola Folch led 107th-ranked Zozaya 5-3, and Court 3, where 102nd-ranked Mushika held a 4-0 lead over Haddad. But in the battle on Court 1, Cal's 36th-ranked Svendsen fell to 23rd-ranked Jana Hossam 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 to hand Cal its season-ending loss.
 
The loss ended the tremendous collegiate career of Passola Folch, Cal's lone senior who finished her final season with records of 29-8 in singles and 16-10 in doubles. The Spaniard ended the fall half of the season as the runner-up in the NCAA Singles Championship and as a singles All-American. In the spring, she garnered a career-best singles ranking of eighth, was named an ACC Player of the Week and collected the Bears' first All-ACC First-Team selection in their two seasons in the conference.
 
Cal sent a total of four Bears to NCAA singles, including Mushika, Xu and Greta Greco Lucchina. Mushika — a doubles All-American as a sophomore — and Greco Lucchina also competed in the NCAA Doubles Championship. The program added the talented Svendsen to the roster in January, and the internationally experienced Dane paid immediate dividends, posting records of 8-3 in singles and doubles, clinching a team-leading four Cal victories and earning an All-ACC Third-Team selection.
 
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