Junior Taylor Davidson spent the first half of the dual match season playing No. 1 singles for the first time in her career. Responsible for anchoring the Cardinal until the return of 2015 NCAA singles runner-up and three-time All-American Carol Zhao, Davidson gained valuable experience playing under pressure, which paid off Saturday at Taube Family Tennis Stadium.

Clinching arguably the biggest match of her career, Davidson rallied for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Rutuja Bhosale to fuel No. 15 Stanford’s 4-3 victory over No. 19 Texas A&M and secure a spot in next week’s NCAA round of 16 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Top-seeded Cal (21-1) also is headed to Tulsa after its 4-0 second-round win over UC Santa Barbara at the Hellman Tennis Complex.

Stanford (16-5) advances to Thursday’s NCAA round of 16 against rival Florida, seeded No. 2 in the postseason draw but ranked No. 1 in the country. Stanford has won six of the past nine meetings, including a 4-3 home victory on Feb. 28.

Cal faces 16th-seeded Texas Tech on Thursday.

The Stanford men notched a 4-1 win over Notre Dame in the first round of the NCAA Championships in Evanston, Illinois. The Cardinal (15-10) awaits its next opponent, as it will face the winner of the Valparaiso vs. No. 14 Northwestern match on Sunday.

Host Cal (18-6) blanked Army 4-0 to advance to the second round of the men’s NCAA tennis championships. Cal will play Mississippi on Sunday. Women’s water polo Jamie Neushul scored three goals, and Julia Hermann made eight saves to lift second-ranked Stanford over host No. 3 UCLA 7-4 to advance to the NCAA title game for the seventh consecutive season. The Cardinal will go for its third straight national championship when it takes on No. 1 USC on Sunday in Los Angeles. Stanford, which has advanced to every NCAA title game since 2010, lost all three meetings with the Trojans (25-0) this year. Baseball Pepperdine’s Ben Rodriguez hit a two-run home run in the top of the 13th inning to give the Waves (25-20, 14-9 West Coast Conference) a 3-1 win over Saint Mary’s (26-22, 14-9).

Jack Klein homered to back the pitching of starter Chris Castellanos and reliever Colton Hock in Stanford’s (25-20, 11-12 Pac-12) 4-2 road win over first-place Utah (19-25, 14-9). Alex Dunlap put the Cardinal ahead to stay in the sixth with an RBI double, making it 3-2.

Devin Pearson and Brett Cumberland each homered twice, and Cal (26-18) rolled 16-0 over host Northwestern in a nonconference game. Cal scored in every inning.

Long Beach State scored just one unearned run off San Jose State’s Josh Nashed in his five innings, but that was it would need in a 2-0 win over the visiting Spartans (16-35).

Mitchell White pitched a four-hitter, and Tyler Meditz and Austin Fisher drove in two runs each as host Santa Clara (22-26, 9-14 WCC) routed Portland 9-1. Softball San Jose State closed the season with a 5-3 win over New Mexico in a Mountain West game, and the second-place Spartans (28-24, 17-7 MW) finished the season with a six-game winning streak. Anissa Pinedo drove in three of the five Spartans’ runs.