ATHENS, Ga. – Storylines galore were waiting.
 
California senior Maegan Manasse was playing for the chance to cap a tremendous college career with her first NCAA doubles title, which eluded her in last year's final. Golden Bear graduate student Maya Jansen was playing for the right to win a third national doubles title – against her old school and the former partner with whom she won her first two championships.
 
But it wasn't meant to be.
 
In Sunday's NCAA Doubles Championship semifinals at the University of Georgia's Dan Magill Tennis Complex, the 34th-ranked Jansen and Manasse lost to Ohio State's 18th-ranked Francesca Di Lorenzo and Miho Kowase, 6-2, 6-3, to end Cal's season and close the careers of the two accomplished Bears.
 
"We were hoping to be playing on the final day of the season," Cal head coach Amanda Augustus said. "Today Ohio State just played a little cleaner match than we did. They went for their shots. At various points of the match we were trying to make adjustments and at least get into that third-set tiebreak but just came up a little short.
 
"Maya and Maegan just need to be really proud of what they were able to accomplish this season. They only started really playing together in January. To get to the doubles tournament and make the semifinals, they had a pretty great year."
 
The loss prevented Jansen from playing against former Alabama doubles partner Erin Routliffe in the final. The two won the 2014 and 2015 NCAA doubles titles for the Crimson Tide. But instead of a Jansen/Manasse vs. Routliffe/Maddie Pothoff championship, Di Lorenzo and Kowase will instead take on the Alabama pair.
 
Last year's final was the only one over the last four seasons that didn't feature Jansen or Routliffe, but it did include Manasse and Denise Starr, who lost to Florida's Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan. And while Manasse got some measure of revenge in beating those same two Gators in Saturday's quarterfinals, the Bears just weren't able to get past the Buckeyes.
 
"We had a lot of fun here, but this was not the way we wanted to go out," said Manasse, who ends her career as a five-time All-American (twice in singles and thrice in doubles). "They (the Buckeyes) played great. I had so much fun playing with Maya this season, and I could not have asked for a better season."
 
"We have a lot of fun playing together," said Jansen, a three-time doubles All-American. "We are roommates so it has been more than fun playing our last season together."
 
NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Doubles Championship
May 28, 2017, in Athens, Ga.
Dan Magill Tennis Complex
 
Semifinal Round
No. 18 Francesca Di Lorenzo/Miho Kowase (Ohio State) def. No. 34 Maya Jansen/Maegan Manasse (Cal), 6-2, 6-3