California Golden Bears Softball: A Way-Too-Early 2025 Season Preview
From a dominant 2024 regular season showing to a heartbreaking WCWS early exit- Cal Softball looks ahead to an ACC future and potential facilities boost.
The California Golden Bears Softball team is back in Berkeley and is swinging into the season wrapping up their Fall Ball scrimmages against the West Valley Vikings, Cal State East Bay Pioneers, UC Davis Aggies, Santa Clara Broncos, College of San Mateo Bulldogs, Sac State Hornets, Saint Mary’s Gaels, and the Sonoma State Seawolves.
Cal dominated the fall with an 8-1 victory over the DII Pioneers and crushed Davis 15-6, followed by a 9-1 victory over Santa Clara. They followed up the next weekend with a 14-2 win over San Mateo (CCCAA conference) and a 9-1 win against Sac State. The Bears finished the Fall 8-0 with wins against St. Mary’s and Sonoma State- the final scores for each game were not made available.
Before sliding into the preview of what is to come this spring with the Golden Bears- a very, and I mean VERY important renovation project legislation is coming up for Cal Softball. In 2018, former Chancellor of UC Berkeley Carol Christ released a statement on the need for updated and improved athletic facilities for women’s beach volleyball and softball to ensure compliance with Title IX’s gender equity mandate. The UC Board of Regents will consider certification of the Environmental Impact Report and project approval for a brand new Levine-Frick Field/stadium at their meeting at UC San Francisco on November 12th through the 14th.
If this project proposal is passed and certified- the women’s softball program will experience a modern and fresh start to Levine-Frick Field. The project includes demolishing the current seating arrangements at the stadium, extending the outfield walls back, adding brand new 85-ft tall lighting towers that are designed to reduce light pollution, a brand new press box, new bathrooms, and upgraded ADA ramps and stairs- as well as upgrades to the parking lot and Centennial Dr up Strawberry Canyon. The players would also receive brand-new locker rooms and much-needed facilities like a batting cage! Fingers crossed for our Golden Bears, they deserve this!
Now back to the preview:
Cal is coming off of an impressive 2024 regular season record of 37-19 under Head Coach (and 2002 National Champion!) Chelsea Spencer, with a 14-8 record at home, a 9-8 record on the road, and a dominant 14-3 at neutral sites. The Golden Bears struggled in conference play, going 9-13 with a disappointing exit against Stanford in their first and only game in the final OG Pac-12 era tournament. Their regular season status earned them an invite to the NCAA Softball Regionals and a national rank in the NFCA/USA Today polls at #21 in the country. Cal wouldn’t make it out of the regional tournament, dropping 2/3 games, both losses to Southern Illinois by 1 run, and their only win coming from a 5-inning 15-0 blowout against Jackson State.
The 2024 season is over and done with. Oklahoma is your national champion, Cal swung and missed it. One door closes, another one opens. Coach Spencer enters her 5th season at Cal, with her and the women’s softball program in Berkeley now heading across the country with their bitter rival and arguably top-3 program Stanford and new re-alignment travel partner SMU to their new home in the Atlantic Coast Conference, where they will look to battle the likeness of top teams such as No. 14 Florida State, No. 4 Duke, No, 20 Virginia Tech, No. 23 Clemson, and No. 29 Virginia Tech- putting Cal in the front of the Atlantic Coast’s conference, coming in ranked at No. 22 (via NCAA on June 6th.) Cal struggled last season with conference road games- so hopefully, Mark Madsen’s Cal-Coaches meeting with NASA has the softball program ready to keep up with the mileage, academics, and sleep!
Cal enters the 2025 season without their ace pitcher Randi Roelling, who led the team in wins, innings, strikeouts, and saves last season, as she has transferred to the University of Georgia. As well as All-Pac-12 first-team infielder Tatum Anzaldo, who graduated and signed a professional contract with the Coastal Bend Tidal Wave! Elite pitcher Haylei Archer also signed with the Coastal Bend Tidal Wave after graduating in the spring of 2024- a huge accomplishment for the program and individuals.
Headlining the returning cast for the Golden Bears includes All-Freshman Lagi Quiroga, All-Pac-12 third-team So. INF Tianna Bell who had batted .305 last season with a .398 OBP, and All-Pac-12 second-team Jr. INF Acacia Anders who batted an amazing .379 last season with 19 doubles and a .447 OBP.
Additions to the roster include (all freshman) OF Kayli Counts, INF/OF Oregon State flipped-commit Harmony Andrade, P Miranda De Nava, P Kiki Mashhoud, INF Miranda Temple, and INF/OF Mia Phillips. An under-the-radar addition who I believe will be an amazing contributor to the Golden Bears is Jr. community college transfer Xiomei Geluz, who batted .437 with 27 stolen bases at Long Beach City College in 44 games last season. She scored 55 runs for the LBCC Vikings and had an on-base percentage of .625 in conference play.
One last sneak peek into the California Softball program is a quick dive into the coaching staff for the upcoming season. Chelsea Spencer took advantage of the NCAA’s new rules (that allow for an increase in the number of coaches on staff and removed the volunteer position from specific athletic programs such as Men’s and women’s basketball, Ice hockey, baseball, and softball) and elevated Kailee Cuico to the position of Assistant Coach (FUN FACT! Coach Spencer and Coach Cuico are married and have two kids together!) and Brandon Telesco as the new Associate Head Coach/hitting coach, as well as bringing a new yet familiar face into the dugout with 2002 National Champ/Cal Alumna Jen Deering as an Assitant coach.
This is a damn good softball program at the University of California. With the ACC’s ESPN+ deal, we will be gaining great accessibility to watch and support the program at home or on the go- so do not miss out while the team has so much going for them. SO LET’S BUILD THEM A NEW STADIUM!
Follow along and subscribe to Write For California for more coverage of Cal Softball this season.
A quick last-minute introduction of myself! I am very excited to join Write For California to cover Cal Softball and Baseball this season and going forward! A little about me: I graduated from UC Berkeley in 2023 with a BA in Media Studies with a concentration in Media Law & Policy, I played Club Baseball at Cal during my time in Berkeley and I am currently a graduate student at The University of Alabama where I am studying for my Master’s degree in Journalism and Sports Broadcasting. I’ve spent my entire life living in the East Bay and can’t wait to share my passion for baseball and softball with you all. GO BEARS! - Justin
Welcome aboard, Justin!
Re: Cal Softball, I think pitching is a major question mark with Archer and Roelling gone. The Fall Ball pitching dominance really doesn't necessarily mean that much given the level of the compeition.
Mya McGowan is a highly touted pitching recruit but she won't arrive on campus until 2025. Could she somehow graduate high school early to help the team this season?
There was a moment when I was very excited this past spring about Softball's Randi Roelling and Baseball's Trey Newmann flashing brilliance as freshmen for the Bears on the same night. However, the new college sports reality is that both are gone to Georgia and TCU, respectively, via the portal.
Welcome, Justin! I’m going to miss Pac-12 games being played in Southern California, but hopefully the softball and baseball teams will play some non-conference contests near me.