NCAA Regional Semifinal Session 2: No.14 Cal vs. No.3 Florida vs. No.20 Penn State vs. No.32 Arizona State (host), where the Top 2 advance to Saturday’s Regional Final
Date: Thursday, April 2, 2026
Time: 7 p.m. PT
Location: Desert Financial Arena (Tempe, AZ)
Streaming/TV: ESPN+
Sadly, all good things must end. Cal Women’s Gymnastics’ championship-contending window closed at the end of 2025 when co-head coaches Justin Howell and Liz Crandall-Howell opted to move to the nearly-brand-new Clemson program. This change coincided with the regular graduation of Mya Lauzon (arguably the best of all time in program history), Maddie Williams, and Ella Cesario (who ended up using a 5th-year eligibility at Clemson this year) as well as the 3-year graduation of Cal commercial starlet eMjae Frazier (who might pull off a Fernando Mendoza by helping Florida to the NCAA title this spring). The Howells took over the program right after it was saved from the chopping block and took it to the brink of a national championship as the 2024 national runner-up.
Cal, last June under then-AD Jim Knowlton, opted to give Geralen Stack-Eaton her first shot as the head coach. She also brought along her husband, Rich Stenger, as the associate head coach. Stack-Eaton eventually brought back the recently graduated Lauzon and Williams as Assistant Coaches in this new regime.
Unfortunately, Cal lost Ondine Achampong to another ACL season-ending injury before the season started. Achampong, a Great Britain senior team member, had injured her ACL just before the Paris 2024 Olympics. She was back in a limited capacity last year as a freshman and was supposed to return to all-around this year. Now that will likely have to wait until 2028.
Nonetheless, Cal Women’s Gymnastics has a great team culture. The student-athletes who haven’t graduated have all stayed put and were ready to take on larger roles in a lineup that lost four all-around gymnasts from last year.
Junior Annalise Newman-Achee is one of those who stepped up to meet the challenge. Newman-Achee improved from just a bars specialist to a regular season All-American all-around second team honoree. She was one of the most steady performers for the Bears all-season long.
Freshman Tonya Paulsson also excelled as the team’s other all-around gymnast. Paulsson, who represent Taiwan internationally, also earned second team All-American honor for all-around and first team All-American honor for the uneven bars. Paulsson had some expected ups and downs during her freshman campaign, but might also have the highest ceiling this postseason.
Paulsson was recently named the ACC’s Gymnastics Newcomer of the Year.
She also won the ACC title for the uneven bars by earning a 9.950 score at the ACC Championships.
Seniors Casey Brown, Jayden Silvers, and Miki Aderinto increased their workload from just one routine to three, two, and two, respectively. Abbey Scanlon is back for her 5th-year but contributed more as another coach since she could not quite consistently match her success on the balance beam from 2025. However, Scanlon was in the beam lineup at the ACC Championships.
Junior Kyen Mayhew (vault and floor) and sophomore CJ Keuneke (floor) hold the same roles as before. Another freshman, Sarah Lee, fills the role of a beam specialist.
Rounding out the Cal lineup, sophomores Mya Wiley and Sage Melkonian became lineup mainstays in their second seasons.
When the regular season was over, Cal remained a solid squad, earning the 14th-best National Qualifying Team Score in the country and the 14th seed in the NCAA postseason. By apparatus, Cal is eighth on uneven bars, 19th on balance beam, 20th on floor exercise, and 21st on vault.
Realistically, Cal should advance, along with Cal alum eMjae Frazier’s Florida, as a team to Saturday’s Regional Final. However, this year’s younger team also needs to perform at its level even under the pressure of the postseason, which is never a given. I should note that Penn State did manage a higher season high (back in February) than Cal this year.
Should the Golden Bears survive and advance, they will meet the top 2 teams from the other half of the regional (No. 6 Georgia, No. 11 Michigan State, Brigham Young, and Southern Utah) for the two spots in the NCAA Championships, again in Fort Worth, Texas.
Even if the team does not qualify, the odds are decent that Cal might still qualify an individual or two.
Looking ahead, Cal got hit on the recruiting front when several commits switched to Clemson (or elsewhere) after the coaching change. This solid season and hopefully a bit of the postseason run will get recruiting on track before the 2027 freshman class. Canadian national team member Maddison Hajjar reclassified to join the team this season but did not see any competitive action (as far as I could tell). These next few years will be important in determining the program’s trajectory for the next decade.
Despite the recent success, Cal Women’s Gymnastics is not yet one of the fully endowed non-revenue sports programs. These programs all share some risk of needing short-term success to ensure longer-term existence.
GO BEARS!
Bears have survived and advanced to Saturday’s regional final!