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A former Cal softball player sued her old coach.
A former Cal softball player has filed a lawsuit against both the university and her former head coach, Chelsea Spencer. The player alleges that Spencer exploited an “unequal power dynamic” to coerce a secret relationship.
When that relationship ended, the player says she was removed from the team. She missed her senior year and an opportunity to pursue a professional career.
Spencer is a former Cal shortstop that played in the early 2000s. She won a national championship in ’02 while making four trips to the Women’s College World Series.
She was hired as head coach by the Bears in 2020. Spencer led the team for five seasons, going 153-108-2 with three NCAA Tournament appearances.
In February of 2025, she received a contract extension. A few months later, she abruptly resigned to “prioritize (her) mental health and family.”
Cal softball coach was dating a player.
That is what a lawsuit against Chelsea Spencer and the University of California alleges. More from Berkeleyside:
A former UC Berkeley softball player has sued the University of California and the head coach who abruptly resigned from the program last year, accusing the coach of pressuring her into a sexual relationship and reducing her playing opportunities when she tried to distance herself.
In a complaint filed in Alameda County Superior Court last week, the former player — identified only as Jane Doe — also said the university failed to protect her from head coach Chelsea Spencer’s advances and did not remove Spencer from a position of authority over her even after athletics department staff learned of their inappropriately close relationship.
Spencer said she was not aware of the lawsuit when Berkeleyside contacted her via LinkedIn… After Berkeleyside sent her a copy of the complaint and asked for her response, she stopped responding to messages and her account appeared to be removed.
The lawsuit details an alleged relationship that began in 2024. The head coach’s inappropriate advances began a year earlier, according to the claim.
Spencer called and texted her every day, the complaint says, steering the conversation toward personal topics, giving her cash gifts, and paying her compliments such as “You’re so beautiful,” and “Your girlfriend is so lucky.”
The player says that if she did not quickly respond to those text messages, her playing time was cut. Prompt replies had the opposite effect.
The relationship is said to have lasted a year or so and was described as “mutual.” The lawsuit notes the power dynamic between head coach and player.
A fight ends relationship, and career.
Berkeleyside referenced an April 2025 argument before a game vs. Florida State in which the player told her coach that she never wanted to speak to her again. Spencer reportedly responded, “You’re not pitching.”
The relationship was said to have been exposed to the athletic department in May. The player’s attorneys say that she was then removed from the team.
She missed her senior season and dreams of a professional career. She also took only online classes during her final year with anxiety of returning to campus.
The suit seeks unspecified economic damages from the UC Regents and Spencer, citing the player’s emotional distress and the loss of her softball career. It accuses UC of failing to follow its own policy on inappropriate relationships or train coaches on how to respond to them.
The lawsuit says athletics staffers were aware of the relationship prior to its exposure, with one claim suggesting knowledge dating back a year. Many of the employees named in the suit no longer work for the university.
UC Berkeley’s policy on conflicts of interest in consensual relationships reads as follows:
If campus authority figures enter a relationship with someone they “supervise, direct, instruct, oversee, evaluate, advise, coach, mentor, tutor,” they must immediately recuse themselves from making decisions about the individual to ensure that there are no conflicts of interest.
That was not done, according to the lawsuit. The player’s career ended when she reported the relationship. Spencer’s resignation came about a month later.