Many female athletes have left behind a lasting legacy through Fresno State athletics. Here are a few of the most notable women to leave their mark in the Central Valley.
Laura Berg
Laura Berg is one of the most prolific women to ever step foot on the Fresno State Margie Wright Diamond. During her time at Fresno State, she was a four-time All-American and helped lead the Bulldogs to their 1998 NCAA Championship. She was the only Bulldog to have three straight seasons with 100 or more hits and ended her career at Fresno State as the program’s all-time leader in hits.
Berg competed in four Olympic Games and won three gold medals and one silver medal. Her No. 44 was retired in 2015 by Fresno State, making it the second number in program history to be retired.
Yvette Roberts
During her four years at Fresno State, Yvette Roberts dominated on the court for the Bulldogs. From the Fresno area, she decided to stay in the Valley and became a Bulldog. By the time she was done, she had broken school records in points, rebounds and free throws while also winning 77 games during her tenure.
Roberts was named the Fresno State Women’s Athlete of the Year in 1989. After Fresno State, she played professionally in Europe, winning three straight national championships from 1993-95, before calling it a career in 2002. She was the second women’s basketball player to have their jersey retired.
Cierra Jackson
Cierra Jackson competed in track and field at Fresno State for all four years of her collegiate career. She broke the NCAA meet record and Mountain West record with a 65.82m throw. She also became the first Fresno State woman athlete to win an NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field title.
Margie Wright
Margie Wright is the winningest coach in Fresno State softball history and had the home diamond named after her. She amassed 1,457 wins during her 33-year coaching career, 1,294 at Fresno State, including a 1998 National Championship. During that stretch, she won 17 conference titles and took the Bulldogs to 10 Women’s College World Series. When she retired in 2012, she was the winningest coach in NCAA history.
Emilia Long
Emilia Long is the starting point guard for this year’s Fresno State women’s basketball team. She came from the University of Alaska Anchorage along with Head Coach Ryan McCarthy. In her lone season at Fresno State, she is leading the team in points, assists and steals. McCarthy, in his latest press conference, called Long “a special player.”
Natalie Benson
Despite not being from the Central Valley, Natalie Benson has built Fresno State water polo into one of the top programs over the last decade. With Benson at the helm, Fresno State water polo won four consecutive conference championships, from 2021-24, and was consistently ranked inside the top 10 nationally.
During her time playing, she won two Olympic medals: bronze at the Athens Games in 2004 and silver at the Beijing Games in 2008.
