LA JOLLA -- Cal State LA's women's tennis team has enjoyed a large numbers of close victories this season, but the Golden Eagles saw the tables get turned on Saturday.

The No. 23 Golden Eagles took a 2-1 lead after the doubles, but came up painfully short in a series of tight singles matches in a 6-3 loss to No. 9 UC San Diego. Cal State LA (12-6) lost for a second time this season to UC San Diego.

The match was a battle between two of the top five teams in the official NCAA Division II West Region rankings. Those rankings determine the three representatives to the NCAA Championships. UC San Diego was second entering this week's matches, while the Golden Eagles were fifth.

Things started well for the Golden Eagles when Nozomi Matsuoka and Kayleigh Hall continued their outstanding play with an 8-5 win over Britta Mosser and Shannon Theisen at No. 1 doubles and Elizaveta Sokolova and Luciana Di Laura won again at No. 3 doubles with an 8-3 win over Alexandra Weil and Madison Hale.

The Golden Eagles, though, came up short in five of the six singles contests, including a pair of three-set battles. The lone point in singles came from Di Laura at the No. 5 spot. She beat Weil, 6-2, 6-4.

Sokolova had the tightest match of the contest at No. 3 singles where she fell to Becky Chou, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6. Raileanu also lost in three sets, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4, at No. 4 singles.

Matsuoka lost a hard-fought battle at No. 1 singles, 7-4, 6-4, to Mosser, while Hall fell at No. 2 singles, 7-5, 6-1. Isabella Lopez fell at No. 6 singles, 6-2, 6-3.

Cal State LA now sets it sights on the PacWest Championships, which begin next week in Surprise, Ariz. The seedings for the tournament will be announced on Monday. The winner of the tournament will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.