A University of California softball coach allegedly pursued an illicit sexual relationship with one of her top pitchers, then cut the student’s playing time and threatened to kill herself when the student broke up with her, according to a lawsuit filed by the former player.
As reported by Jakob Rodgers of The Mercury News of San Jose, Chelsea Spencer carried on the relationship with the student for nearly two years, even as other Cal softball coaches knew about it and did little or nothing to intervene, according to the lawsuit filed Aug. 24 in Alameda County Superior Court.
The lawsuit names both Spencer and the University of California’s regents as defendants, and claims the school’s leaders were negligent in hiring, training and supervising its staff.
Spencer, a former Cal player, saw her five-year tenure as head coach come to an end in June 2025, weeks after the university’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination received a report about the alleged relationship.
The ordeal proved emotionally devastating and costly to the player, identified only as Jane Doe R.O., the lawsuit claims. She arrived in 2023 on a full athletic scholarship and dreamed of playing professionally. Those ambitions took a “significant” hit after the scandal erupted, according to the lawsuit.
“Spencer’s conduct toward plaintiff was extreme, outrageous and beyond all bounds of conduct ordinarily tolerated in a civilized society,” the lawsuit says.
“Plaintiff lost an entire season of collegiate competition at a critical stage in her athletic development and, with it, the opportunity to pursue professional softball on the trajectory she had worked toward for years.”
According to Rodgers, citing language within the lawsuit, Spencer targeted the player for attention “almost immediately” after her Berkeley arrival. The coach texted or sent Instagram messages to the pitcher “every day,” often about “intensely personal” subjects such as Spencer’s marriage and emotional struggles. The messages quickly took on a romantic tone, the lawsuit claims, all while the coach allegedly lavished the player with gifts, including direct payment of some $450, as well as AirPods worth another $400.
“Compliance made plaintiff’s life within the softball program easier; resistance carried consequences,” the filing alleges, per Rodgers. The pitcher “received greater playing opportunities” when she gave in Spencer’s advances, the lawsuit claims, yet saw the coach direct her “anger and her frustration toward the team” when she didn’t.
Rodgers laid out the following timeline from the lawsuit:
December 2023: The point at which an associate head coach and a pitching coach knew of an relationship relationship between Spencer and Doe.
May 2024: The pair's sexual relationship began on a Cal roadtrip and continued through spring 2025, a period in which Spencer demanded Doe keep the relationship secret, “deny it” when asked and “protect” Spencer.
February 2025: The point at which a different pitching coach and Spencer’s wife knew of the relationship between Spencer and Doe, and fellow players on the team complained of “favoritism and differential treatment” within the team.
April 2025: Doe tried ending the relationship, only to be barred from a game she had been scheduled to pitch. The pair had sex multiple times after that point, during which Doe felt controlled by the coach’s “established pattern of coercion, emotional pressure, threats and exercise of coaching authority.”
May 2025: Two graduate student-athletes told “supervisory athletics personnel” that both Spencer and her then wife — also member of the Cal coaching staff — had “weirdly close” relationships with certain students. The UC Berkeley Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination received a similar report a week later, followed by another report the following month of Spencer’s “possibly physical” relationship with Doe. In addition, Doe was removed from the team prior to the start of her senior season and after Spencer had a conversation about the relationship with Gordon Bayne, the university’s associate athletics director for sports administration.
It remains unclear, based on The Mercury News coverage, what remedy Doe seeks through the lawsuit.
