2025-26 Cal State LA Women's Basketball – Season Summary

LOS ANGELES -- Cal State LA's women's basketball team enjoyed a historic season in 2025-26 with a record-setting campaign highlighted by the first California Collegiate Athletic Association championship in school history.

The Golden Eagles continued the best run in program history with a sensational season that culminated in a dominating performance in the CCAA Tournament. As the No. 3 seed, the Golden Eagles blitzed No. 6 Cal State Monterey Bay (74-40), No. 2 Cal Poly Humboldt (87-55) and No. 1 Cal Poly Pomona (78-62) in Kellogg Arena to capture the conference tournament. Cal State LA won the three games by a combined 82 points.

The Golden Eagles set several new records during the season. Cal State LA went 24-7 overall, setting a new record for most wins in a season, eclipsing the previous mark of 21 set originally in 1978-79 and matched in 2012-13. The Golden Eagles were also 18-4 in conference play and finished in a tie for second with Cal Poly Humboldt, setting new program records for most conference wins and best CCAA finish. To get there, the Golden Eagles enjoyed a 15-game winning streak, which smashed the previous record of eight.

Cal State LA reached unprecidented success with an explosive offense that led the CCAA and was No. 9 in the nation. The Golden Eagles averaged 78.3 points per game, which is a new program record, eclipsing the previous record of 77.8 points per game set in 1979. The Golden Eagles were also third in the nation in assist/turnover ratio (+1.29) and fourth in assists per game (17.8).

Senior Nevaeh Asiasi also made history, becoming the first player in program history to earn CCAA Player of the Year honors and also the first to earn CCAA Tournament Most Valuable Player honors. continued one of the best runs in program history in 2024-25 with another winning season and another trip to the California Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament. She led the CCAA in scoring with 19.4 points per game and became Cal State LA's first scoring leader since Tessondra Williams in 2012-13.

Asiasi earned first-team All-West Region honors from the D2 Conference Commissioners Association as well as All-America honorable mention from the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. She became the sixth player in program history to earn All-America recognition and just the third since 1989.

Cal State LA continued its rise as one of the top teams in the West Region. The Golden Eagles reached the NCAA Tournament for the third time in the past four years, this time as a No. 5 seed. The Golden Eagles faced another team coming off a conference tournament title, No. 4 seed Vanguard of the PacWest Conference, and fell in a tight first-round matchup, 79-75, at Central Washington, to end their season.

With the 24 wins, the Golden Eagles now have 79 victories over the past four seasons, which is by far the best stretch in program history. Cal State LA had 68 wins from the 1978-79 to 1981-82 seasons for its previous standard.

Cal State LA got its season off to a promising start by winning both games in the CCAA/GNAC Challenge at Seattle Pacific, beating the tourney hosts, 75-63, and NCAA participant Western Washington, 79-78. The Golden Eagles made it 3-0 with an impressive 73-61 over another NCAA participant, Azusa Pacific, in Azusa. The Golden Eagles then went 1-3 over their next four games, splitting a pair of conference road games at Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State San Bernardino to open CCAA play before falling in non-conference games to Pepperdine on the road and the eventual West Region No. 1 seed, Central Washington, at home.

The Golden Eagles swept conference games from San Francisco State and Cal State East Bay to close out the calendar year, but opened January with road losses to Chico State and Cal Poly Humboldt by a combined four points to fall to 6-5 overall and 3-3 in conference.

Then the Golden Eagles got hot.

A 101-66 win over Stanislaus State - the program's first 100-point game since a 105-83 win over Point Loma in the 1998-99 season - was the start of the record-breaking 15 game winning streak that was simply awe-inspiring. Only one of the 15 games - a hard-fought 87-83 win over Cal State Dominguez Hills in University Gym - was decided by less than 10 points. Six were decided by 20 or more points.

The lengthy streak pulled the Golden Eagles to within one game of first-place Cal Poly Pomona heading into the regular-season finale against the Broncos in University Gym. Cal State LA held a one-point lead heading into the final quarter and sliced a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit to two points before ultimately falling, 74-70. The Golden Eagles fell back into a tie for second with Cal Poly Humboldt and wound up with the No. 3 seed for the conference tourney.

It didn't take long for the Golden Eagles to exact their revenge. After big wins over Cal State Monterey Bay and Cal Poly Humboldt to open the tournament, the Golden Eagles took a 59-41 lead into the fourth quarter and went on to a 78-62 win in the title game over the host Broncos. Asiasi was the tourney MVP and Sofia Fidelus, who had 27 points in a tremendous championship-game performance, joined her on the All-Tournament team.

Cal State LA had five players earn All-CCAA honors, led by Asiasi, the Player of the Year, and Fidelus, who earned first-team honors. Senior Amaya Fuentes and sophomore newcomer Ariyah Smith both earned second-team honors and sophomore Mariah Blake earned All-CCAA honorable mention.

Asiasi finished her career atop several Cal State LA Top-10 categories. She is No. 1 all-time in games played (117), No. 5 in minutes played (3,041), No. 8 in points (1,210), No. 7 in field goals (480), No. 6 in field goals attempted (1,087), No. 4 in field-goal percentage (.442), No. 9 in rebounds (570), No. 7 in assists (307) and No. 8 in steals (180). She set a new single-season record with 1,136 minutes played and is No. 5 in single-season scoring average (19.4), No. 3 in field goals (231), No. 3 in field goals attempted (497) and No. 4 in steals (84).

Fidelus was second on the team in scoring with 14.0 points per game and was second in assists in her third year with the program. She had her best game of the season in the tournament title game against Cal Poly Pomona, going 8-of-14 from the floor, hitting all four of her 3-point attempts and making 7-of-8 from the free-throw line en route to her season-high of 27 points.

Fuentes capped off her Cal State LA career with another strong season. She joined Asiasi as the only two players to start all 31 games and was fifth in scoring with an 8.5 points per game average and third on the team with 5.1 rebounds per game. She finished her career No. 4 in 3-pointers made (120), No. 7 in 3-point percentage (.321), No. 5 in blocked shots (101) and No. 2 in games played (114).

Smith, who earned All-CCAA honorable mention at Cal State East Bay as a freshman, provided a big boost to the Golden Eagles in her first season at Cal State LA. She led the CCAA and was No. 8 nationally in assists and No. 1 in the CCAA and 11th in the nation in assist/turnover ratio.

Blake made huge strides in her play and was third on the team in scoring with 9.2 points per game and second on the team with 6.4 rebounds per game. She appeared in all 31 games and got the first two starts of her career.

The Golden Eagles also got increased contributions from Ronyae Jackson, who started 30 of 31 games, and sophomore Kyara Walter, who got playing time in all 31 games and was No. 2 on the team in 3-pointers (41) and first in 3-point field-goal percentage (.461).

The Golden Eagles also celebrated the return of Gabrielle Rones, who came back after suffering a season-ending knee injury early in the 2024-25 season. She played in 22 games with three starts.

Cal State LA also excelled once again academically. Blake, Fuentes and Smith all earned College Sports Communicators All-District honors and several players were on track to earn CCAA academic honors as well.

Cal State LA Women's Basketball
2025-26 Overall Record: 24-7. CCAA Record: 18-4 (T-2)
Final NCAA West Region Ranking: 5
WBCA All-America: Nevaeh Asiasi (honorable mention)
D2 Conference Commissioners Association All-West Region: Nevaeh Asiasi (1st team)
CCAA Player of the Year: Nevaeh Asiasi
All-CCAA: Nevaeh Asiasi (1st team), Sofia Fidelus (1st team), Amaya Fuentes (2nd team), Ariyah Smith (2nd team), Mariah Blake (honorable mention)
CCAA Player of the Week: Sofia Fidelus (Nov. 10-16), Nevaeh Asiasi (Dec. 15-21), Nevaeh Asiasi (Jan. 5-11), Sofia Fidelus (Jan. 19-25), Nevaeh Asiasi (Feb. 2-8)
CCAA All-Tournament Team: Nevaeh Asiasi (Most Valuable Player), Sofia Fidelus
CSC Academic All-District: Amaya Fuentes, Mariah Blake, Ariyah Smith
CCAA Winter Academic Honor Roll: Sofia Fidelus, Amaya Fuentes, Ariyah Smith, Kyara Walter
2025-26 CCAA All-Academic Award: TBA
2025-26 D2 ADA Academic Achievement Award: TBA