The 2025-26 season for the California women's basketball team was defined by resilience, growth and a team that continued to find its stride when the stakes were highest.
 
In a year marked by marquee victories and a postseason run that extended deep into March, the Golden Bears finished 21-15 overall and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT), building momentum for the future. The season marked Cal's second straight season with more than 20 wins and its deepest postseason run under head coach Charmin Smith. Smith also registered her 100th career victory with a win over Wake Forest in the first round of the ACC Tournament. Throughout the season, records were broken and a number of players had the best year of their careers.
 
The season began with the Bears on the global stage as they tipped off the college women's basketball season as one of just four teams across the United States invited to play at the prestigious Oui-Play event in Paris. Even former Bear Leilani McIntosh joined the trip for a couple days and mentioned how important a trip like that could be for the team.
 
"Connection is one of the strongest things for a team to be successful. Everyone needs to be on the same page, and with an international trip like that, there is no better way to connect and build relationships with your teammates," McIntosh said.
 
Cal then returned to Berkeley for a long homestand that included the fifth annual Raising The B.A.R. Invitational and for the second consecutive year, the Bears took home the championship after defeating Harvard.
 
Even though Cal finished the rest of the 2025 calendar year 5-4, the Bears were extremely competitive as all four losses were by single digits, including two by four points or less. It was proof of just how quickly the team had started gelling together after welcoming four freshmen and three transfers.
 
After the turn of the calendar, ACC conference play was in full swing. After a tough start facing three of the top teams in the conference, the Bears had a 4-1 stretch to end the month of January that included a win over rival Stanford and against Notre Dame. The only loss during that span came in an epic triple overtime game at Syracuse, which included a number of outstanding performances including first career double-doubles from Lulu Twidale (16 points and 12 assists) and Taylor Barnes (16 points and 11 rebounds) and a 25-point outing from Naya Ojukwu.
 
The Bears opened February with a 4-1 record that included a nail-biting win at Georgia Tech and a win over Sweet 16 bound Virginia. Against the Yellow Jackets, Gisella Maul had one of the most clutch performances of her career as she scored 10 points in the fourth quarter. Two of her buckets came when the Bears' lead was cut to three points twice late in the fourth quarter including one with 35 seconds left. She ended up with 17 points and 13 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season. Cal used a strong defensive effort against Virginia, holding the Cavaliers to just 11 assists after they came into the game leading the ACC at 18.6 assists per game. Sakima Walker led the way with 20 points and 10 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season. The Bears ended the regular season with their most dominating win of the season with a 78-34 victory over SMU. The 34 points were the lowest for a Cal opponent since Jan. 11, 2009, when the Bears held Washington to 34 points and the Bears hit 15 3-pointers — the most in a game this season and the fourth-most in program history. Twidale was responsible for seven of the triples —her third game that season with at least seven 3-pointers — and she finished the regular season as the ACC leader for threes.
 
After entering the ACC Tournament as the No. 10 seed, Cal easily defeated Wake Forest in the first round but lost a hard-fought game to Syracuse in the second round. The Bears now had their eyes set on the postseason.
 
Cal earned an at-large berth and a No. 3 seed in the Women's Basketball Invitational Tournament. The Bears were challenged by Santa Clara in the first round as they were down eight points with eight minutes to go, but Walker scored four consecutive field goals to spark the comeback and the win.
 
In the second round at Kansas State, Cal built a 25-point lead in the fourth quarter powered by Walker's career-high double-double of 26 points and 16 rebounds to cruise to the win. In that game, Twidale also knocked down four 3-pointers to set program records for both single-season and career triples.
 
The Bears' postseason run would come to an end in the quarterfinal round against eventual WBIT Champion Columbia. It was a nailbiter as Cal overcame a 12-point deficit in the third quarter to eventually take the lead with just under two minutes remaining but was unable to complete the comeback.
 
It marked the end of the 2025-26 season but left a lot of room for optimism moving forward. The team showed it can compete and win against some of the top teams in the country and continued the program's upwards momentum.
 
The 2026-27 Bears will return a majority of their starting core and feature a proven transfer class and group of freshmen who are among the best up and coming players in the country. If the season revealed anything, it was this: the Bears are continuing to build — and the climb is trending in the right direction.