A former Cal softball player is suing the school and her former head coach, alleging sexual misconduct.
The suit filed in Alameda County Superior Court under the name “Jane Doe” says former head coach Chelsea Spencer forced a player who joined the team in 2023 into a sexual relationship she felt she couldn’t end and impacted her playing time.
Spencer quit as Cal’s head coach in June 2025, citing her desire to focus on her mental health and family.
The player is suing Spencer, the University of California’s Board of Regents, as well as unnamed people including “administrators, athletic directors, supervisors, employees, agents” and other individuals who “participated in, facilitated, enabled, concealed, ratified, or are otherwise responsible for the intentional misconduct.”
A spokesperson for UC Berkeley tells Front Office Sports the school has no comment on the litigation. Efforts to reach Spencer were not successful. Berkeleyside first reported news of the suit.
The suit says:
- Spencer had frequent and “intensely personal” communications with the player, including sharing suicidal and romantic thoughts. Spencer told the player “you’re so beautiful” and “your girlfriend is so lucky,” the filing reads, and gifted her several hundred dollars and AirPods.
- Spencer got angry at the player and “reduced or withheld” her playing opportunities if the player distanced herself or did not give Spencer “the attention she demanded.” The player got more playing opportunities when she gave Spencer that attention, the suit says. Later, “the same pattern extended to physical and sexual content,” the filing reads.
- On campus, Spencer “became unusually touchy with [the player], engaged in prolonged embraces, and kissed [the player] on her face and neck.”
- During an away trip in May 2024, Spencer told the player to come to her hotel room, where the relationship became sexual, the suit reads. “The sexual contact was mutual in physical form, but occurred within the coach-athlete relationship Spencer had cultivated and the pattern of rewards and consequences [the player] had already experienced,” says the filing. The player and Spencer continued having sexual encounters throughout the 2024–25 school year, the suit says. Spencer told the player to keep the relationship a secret and made her delete their messages off her phone, according to the filing.
- The player says she felt she needed to keep Spencer “emotionally satisfied” so the coach wouldn’t take her anger out on the team, and that the “overall environment surrounding the team became easier” when the player gave Spencer “the attention and intimacy” she wanted. Spencer also threatened to commit suicide if the player ended their relationship, the suit says. When the player tried to end the relationship in April 2025, Spencer told her she wouldn’t be pitching in the next game.
- Multiple coaches knew about the relationship but didn’t separate them or report it. In February 2025, other players reported concerns, including “special privileges and preferential treatment because of the relationship,” to Cal associate athletic director Gordon Bayne, the suit says.
- Spencer spoke with Bayne about the relationship in May 2025, and the player was “removed” from the team. Also that month, the suit says, “two graduating student-athletes told supervisory Athletics personnel that coaches on the softball team had ‘weirdly close’ relationships with certain players and that Spencer and Cuico had each selected someone to ‘latch onto.’”
As a player at Cal, Spencer won an NCAA title and was an All-American. She became head coach in May 2020 and spent five seasons with the program before stepping down in June 2025. She had just signed a contract extension with the school in February of that year. According to Northwestern Mutual’s website, Spencer left softball for a job as a financial representative in Long Beach, Calif.
The suit says Spencer’s wife, former Cal assistant coach Kailee Cuico, was aware of the relationship. Cuico played under Spencer at Oregon before joining the Ducks coaching staff. Cuico was an assistant at Texas and Cal while Spencer coached there.
When contacted via LinkedIn, Spencer told Berkeleyside she was not aware of the lawsuit, writing: “If this is pending litigation, then the claims will be addressed in the appropriate legal processes.” Later, Spencer appeared to deactivate her LinkedIn account.
