A UC Berkeley 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 recently filed lawsuit.

The coach, 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, which was filed on Aug. 24 in Alameda County Superior Court.

The filing — brought by a former Cal player identified only as Jane Doe R.O. — 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.

The legal salvo marks the latest twist in a scandal that upended Cal’s softball program over the last year and a half. Spencer — herself a former Cal player who once starred at Arroyo High in San Lorenzo — 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 it.

For the pitcher who was allegedly pursued by Spencer, the ordeal proved emotionally devastating and costly to her career, the lawsuit claims. A highly-touted pitching prospect, the student arrived at the university in 2023 on a full athletic scholarship and harbored dreams of playing professionally. Yet those ambitions took a “significant” hit after the scandal erupted, according to the suit.

“Spencer’s conduct toward plaintiff was extreme, outrageous and beyond all bounds of conduct ordinarily tolerated in a civilized society,” the lawsuit says.

Cal Berkeley’s communications team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. Attempts by this news outlet to reach Spencer were not successful.

Spencer targeted the player for attention “almost immediately” after her arrival at Cal in 2023, the lawsuit claims.

The coach texted or sent Instagram messages to the pitcher “every day,” often about “intensely personal” subjects like Spencer’s marriage and emotional struggles, the lawsuit alleges. 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 and AirPods worth another $400.

Over time, a single lesson became clear: “Compliance made plaintiff’s life within the softball program easier; resistance carried consequences,” the filing alleges. 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.

The lawsuit claimed the two had sex several times, beginning on a road trip in May 2024 and continuing through spring 2025. During that time, Spencer demanded the student keep the relationship secret, “deny it” when asked and “protect” Spencer, the lawsuit alleges.

The student tried ending the relationship in April 2025, only to be barred from pitching in a game she had been scheduled to appear in, the lawsuit says. The two had sex multiple times after that point, during which the student felt controlled by the coach’s “established pattern of coercion, emotional pressure, threats and exercise of coaching authority,” the lawsuit claims.

“Over time, plaintiff no longer felt that she possessed meaningful freedom to simply refuse Spencer and walk away,” the lawsuit says.

The situation reached a head in May 2025.

That month, two graduate student-athletes told “supervisory athletics personnel” that both Spencer and her wife at the time — herself also a member of the team’s 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 the pitcher, according to the lawsuit.

Even so, the filing claims multiple coaches knew of Spencer’s actions long before then. An associate head coach, as well as a pitching coach, knew of an relationship relationship between Spencer and the pitcher by December 2023, the lawsuit asserts.

By February 2025, a different pitching coach and Spencer’s wife also knew of the relationship, the lawsuit claims. In addition, fellow players on the team complained of “favoritism and differential treatment” within the team, it says.

The pitcher was “removed” from the team in May 2025 and missed her entire senior-year season after Spencer had a conversation about the relationship with Gordon Bayne, the university’s associate athletics director for sports administration, the lawsuit says.

The impact was devastating, the filing alleges: “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.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with feelings of depression or suicidal thoughts, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline offers free, round-the-clock support, information and resources for help. Call or text the lifeline at 988, or see the 988lifeline.org website, where chat is available.

Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.