Analyzing the Women's Basketball Roster for 2026-27

Under seventh-year head coach Charmin Smith, the Cal women’s basketball program took a solid step forward in last season, finishing 21–15 overall and 9–9 in their second season as members of the ACC.

The Bears opened the season in Paris for the Oui-Play event against Vanderbilt and closed with a quarterfinal appearance in the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament. Along the way, Cal posted impressive wins over Notre Dame and Stanford and guard Lulu Twidale earned All-ACC Second Team honors.

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Guard Lulu Twidale

Now, as Smith assembles the 2026–27 roster, the Bears face a familiar offseason challenge: replacing a dominant center while retaining the core that helped move the program forward last season. 

Cal’s 2025–26 team was built through a blend of returning contributors, transfer portal additions and a strong freshman class. Smith brought in three impactful transfers during the spring and summer of 2025: Mjracle Sheppard from LSU, Naya Ojukwu from Morgan State, and Sakima Walker from South Carolina. She also signed four prep players in Taylor Barnes, Isis Johnson-Musah, Grace McCallop, and Aliyahna “Puff” Morris, a McDonald’s All-American from Etiwanda High School in Rancho Cucamonga, California.

Veteran 5’10 Aussie guard Lulu Twidale was Cal’s offensive engine. She led the team with 16.1 points per game and finished the regular season as the ACC’s leader in three-pointers made, with 90 in the regular season and 101 for the full year, setting a Cal single-season record. She posted three 30-point road games - tied for the most in the conference - and passed the 1,000-career-point mark at Pitt on February 8. She was the only player in the country with two games featuring at least 30 points, seven assists, and seven three-pointers. Her 93.0 percent free-throw rate in conference play led the ACC.

6’6 South Carolina transfer Sakima Walker was the lone player to start all 36 games, averaging 12.5 points and a team-leading 6.9 rebounds while shooting 56.7 percent from the field, which ranked second in the ACC. She blocked 71 shots on the season, ranking third in the conference in multi-block games. Her career highs of 28 points and 16 rebounds came in the WBIT against Kansas State. Walker had previously been part of South Carolina’s undefeated national championship team in 2023–24. Her eligibility is now exhausted.

5’10 junior guard Mjracle Sheppard transferred from LSU and immediately became Cal’s perimeter defensive specialist. She averaged 10

Bear Insider

Guard Mjracle Sheppard

points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists per game and was one of 11 ACC players with at least four games of four or more steals. Her best all-around performance was an 18-point, 10-assist, 4-steal game in a victory over Notre Dame in which she held All-American Hannah Hidalgo to 22 points on 20 shot attempts.

5’11 junior guard Gisella Maul’s development was apparent during the season. After averaging just 1.3 points per game as a sophomore, Maul blossomed into a starter and averaged 10 points and 7 rebounds per game as a junior, recording five double-doubles. She ranked fifth in the ACC among guards in double-doubles and was the team’s most improved player. Her clutch fourth-quarter shooting at Georgia Tech and 20-point, 11-rebound performance at Pitt underscored her breakout year.

McDonald’s All-American 5-5 frosh guard Puff Morris began the season as the starting point guard but missed nine games with a knee injury. After returning, she came off the bench behind Maul and Sheppard, finishing with 7 points, 3.1 assists, and 2.4 rebounds per game. Her 17-point, 5-for-10 three-point shooting game against Charlotte was a season highlight. Morris entered the transfer portal in April 2026.

The Bears experienced several roster changes heading into 2026–27. Walker exhausted her eligibility, leaving a 6’6”, 12.5-point, 6.9-rebound hole in the frontcourt. Graduate forward Claudia Langarita (6’4”, Barcelona, Spain) also departed. Among the underclassmen, Morris, Lola Donez, Grace McCallop, and Isis Johnson-Musah all entered the transfer portal. Morris’s departure was particularly notable given her 7 points per game as a freshman. Donez had started four games and contributed as a defensive role player, averaging 2.4 points in 16.1 minutes per game.

Smith moved quickly in the portal and on the international recruiting trail to reshape the roster. The 2026–27 squad features 14 players: six returning contributors, three transfer portal signings and five incoming freshmen drawn from an impressively global talent pool that spans Australia, Greece, Serbia, and Finland.

The good news for Cal is that the four starters with eligibility remaining all chose to return. Twidale comes back as a senior and the reigning All-ACC Second Team selection, already at the top of Cal’s career three-point list. Sheppard returns as the team’s defensive anchor and playmaker. Maul, after her breakout season is poised for an even bigger role. Taylor Barnes, who started early in the season as a freshman, gives Cal a 6’0 wing with strong upside. Naya Ojukwu returns as a junior forward after contributing off the bench, and Anastasia Drosouni and Sofia Bowes round out the returning core.

Transfer Portal Signings

Shannon Dowell - 5’10 Missouri senior guard portal transfer 

Dowell is the most seasoned portal addition. She started 29 games for Missouri in the SEC last season, averaging 14.9 points and 6.1 rebounds

Cal Athletics

Portal transfer guard Shannon Dowell

with five double-doubles. Before that, she averaged 17.6 points and 5.2 rebounds at Illinois State. Smith praised Dowell as a proven scorer with an aggressive offensive mentality and a player who will be ready for the ACC immediately.

Albina Syla - 6’5 Rhode Island junior portal transfer center

Syla is the primary replacement for Walker at center. She started all 33 games for Rhode Island as a sophomore, averaging 9.2 points and 7.1 rebounds while shooting 58.3 percent from the field. She was the A-10 Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, averaging 13.7 points and 10 rebounds in three tournament games, as Rhode Island earned its first NCAA Tournament bid in 30 years. Originally from Finland, Syla played on the Finnish national team and was named the 2023 Nordic Championship All-Star 5 Player.

Carly Amborn -6’2 Stanford portal transfer guard 

Amborn brings size and shooting to the guard position. The Bay Area native and former 4 star recruit played 16 games as a freshman at Stanford, averaging 2 points per game in limited minutes, but made 8 of 14

Cal Athletics

Portal transfer guard Carly Amborn

three-pointers for an impressive 57.1%. In high school at San Domenico, she led her team to an NCS Division V title with 27 points and 15 rebounds in the championship game and was twice named to the San Francisco Chronicle All-Metro First Team. Her mother, Pam Nelson-Campbell, was a three-time tennis All-American at Cal.

Incoming Freshmen

Zara Russell 6-2 forward from Canberra, Australia

Russell is a versatile wing who played in the WNBL, Australia’s top professional league, and was a member of the Australian Gems at the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup. She shot a deadly 60% from three in that tournament and averaged 17 points per game in Australia’s NBL1 semi-professional league.

Ruby Perkins - 5’8 guard from East Killara, Australia

Perkins is a defensive specialist guard who also played in the WNBL and was teammates with Russell on the Australian Gems. She was named MVP of the 2025 Under-20 Australian National Championships after scoring 25 points in the gold medal game.

Jovana Jevtovic - 6’4 forward/center from Ivanjica, Serbia

Jevtovic brings professional experience from Sopron Basket in Hungary. She led the Serbian U-20 team to their first Division B championship game at EuroBasket, earning tournament MVP honors with averages of 16.3 points and 10.0 rebounds.

Anna Lagonikaki - 6’4 forward from Crete, Greece

Lagonikaki signed with Cal in November and adds international size to the frontcourt. She joins a pipeline of Greek talent that includes returning guard Anastasia Drosouni.

The 2025–26 roster relied heavily on Walker’s 6’6 frame as its only true post presence, with 6’4 Langarita as the backup. The 2026–27 roster addresses this concern aggressively with Syla at 6’5, Jevtovic at 6’4, Lagonikaki at 6’3, Russell at 6’2, and Amborn at 6’2 giving the Bears five players 6’2 or taller, compared to just three last year, providing more versatility in lineups and better rebounding depth.

The departure of Morris, Donez, McCallop, and Johnson-Musah removes four guards from the rotation, though only Morris played big minutes. Dowell’s 14.9-point scoring average from the SEC should more than replace Morris’ offensive production, while Perkins adds defensive tenacity. Twidale, Sheppard, and Maul form an experienced trio that collectively averaged over 36 points per game last season.

The 2025–26 roster had five freshmen in its 13-player rotation. The 2026–27 roster has four freshmen among 14 players, but the returning core is now a year older and battle-tested through 36 ACC games. Twidale,

Cal Athletics

F/C Albina Syla

Sheppard, Maul, and Drosouni all enter as seniors. Adding Dowell’s SEC and MVC experience makes this the most veteran Cal WBB roster in recent memory.

Both rosters featured notable international presence, but the 2026–27 squad doubles down with players from Australia (Twidale, Russell, Perkins), Greece (Drosouni, Lagonikaki), Finland (Syla), Serbia (Jevtovic), and Spain (represented last year by Langarita) give Cal one of the most globally diverse rosters in the ACC. Six of the 14 players hail from outside the country.

If the 2025–26 season was about establishing Cal as a competitive ACC program, 2026–27 is about taking the next step. The program’s core returns intact, headlined by Twidale’s elite perimeter shooting, Sheppard’s lockdown defense, and Maul’s emerging all-around game. The portal brought in a proven SEC scorer in Dowell and a physical, rim-protecting center in Syla to fill the void left by Walker. The freshman class adds size and international experience.

Smith has retained her core and addressed the roster’s biggest weakness -interior depth - with multiple additions. If Syla, Jevtovic, and the returning forwards can hold up against ACC frontlines, Cal has the backcourt firepower and veteran leadership to make a serious push for a return to the NCAA Tournament.