‘We didn’t want to play against a male player’: Transgender issue pits female volleyball players against their own university

University of Nevada outside hitter Sia Liilii and her teammates had only taken a few bites of their pregame meal before a match at rival UNLV earlier this month when their phones began buzzing nonstop.

Texts began pouring in informing the volleyball players that their school had just announced it intended to proceed with a scheduled match against San Jose State on October 26.

To Liilii, the most troubling part wasn’t Nevada committing to facing an opponent believed to have a transgender player among its top attackers. It was that university administrators hadn’t once spoken with Liilii and her teammates to gauge their comfort level.

“We were pretty upset after that statement came out from our university,” Liilii told Yahoo Sports. “It just hit us that we needed to talk about what we wanted to do as a group, make a decision and stand by it.”

The supposed transgender player at San Jose State had already been a topic of casual conversation among Nevada volleyball players for weeks. They had observed four other schools forfeit matches against San Jose State rather than take the court against the player in question. They had gawked at social media clips of her powerful spikes ricocheting off opposing players.

Once the university announced its plan to move forward with the San Jose State match, talks among the Nevada players became more serious. They held a series of team meetings last week, according to Liilii, to allow players to voice their opinions and to decide on a plan of action.

“The vast majority of our team decided this is something we wanted to take a stand on,” Liilii said. “We didn’t want to play against a male player.

“In all of our team meetings it just kept coming back to the fact that men do not belong in women’s sports. If you’re born a biological male, you don’t belong in women’s sports. It’s not even about this individual athlete. It’s about fair competition and safety for everyone.”

Last Sunday, the Nevada women’s volleyball players informed university leaders that they intended to forfeit the upcoming match against San Jose State. The next morning, with the help of a right-wing political consulting firm, the players released a statement announcing their plans to forfeit and Liilii spoke with Outkick to further explain the decision.

Within hours, the University of Nevada responded by doubling down on its previous stance. The players’ decision to forfeit, according to a university statement, was “made independently” and “does not represent the position of the University.” Citing state law prohibiting discrimination, the university reiterated its intent to move forward with the San Jose State match as scheduled but said it would not punish players who choose not to participate.

The byproduct is a scenario unusual even for modern-day college athletics: A standoff between a team inspired to take action and the university it represents.

The backstory

Before it found itself at the center of the national firestorm surrounding transgender athletes, San Jose State women’s volleyball could not have been more obscure. This is a program that last won a conference title in 1985, last made the NCAA tournament in 2001 and that seldom draws more than a few hundred fans to home matches.

The player believed to be transgender had already played at San Jose State prior to this year for two seasons without incident. She didn’t make an all-conference team, nor was she among the Mountain West leaders in kills or kills percentage. Yahoo Sports is not identifying the player because neither she nor San Jose State has commented on her gender identity.

Her presence first drew attention last April when Reduxx published a story alleging that a San Jose State women’s volleyball player was transgender and had withheld her biological sex from teammates and opponents. The self-described “pro-woman, pro-child” outlet said it had begun reporting the story after receiving a tip from the mother of an opposing player.

Last month, another San Jose State women’s volleyball player, co-captain Brooke Slusser, joined a federal lawsuit challenging NCAA policy allowing transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports. Slusser roomed with the player in question after transferring from Alabama in fall 2023 but only learned about her teammate’s alleged gender identity after Reduxx outed her.

In the legal filing, Slusser insisted that her allegedly transgender teammate strikes the ball with such power that it provides San Jose State “an unfair advantage” and poses a safety risk to other players during practices and games. Slusser claimed the player’s spikes in practice were traveling “faster than she had ever seen a woman hit a volleyball.”

Those comments from Slusser tossed a lighted match on a pile of kindling. Local and national media outlets began covering the story, activist groups attacked San Jose State and right-wing politicians exerted their influence.

On the eve of its Sept. 28 match at San Jose State, Boise State released a 48-word statement revealing it would not play and would accept a forfeit loss. Wyoming and Utah State followed by forfeiting October matches against the Spartans. In each instance, the schools chose not to explain why they weren’t playing. In each instance, the announcements were followed by a social media post from a state governor applauding the decision.

Political pressure appears to have played a role in Wyoming’s decision to forfeit after initially announcing plans to play San Jose State as scheduled. In an October 1 open letter to Wyoming’s president and athletic director, state senator Cheri Steinmetz tacitly threatened to cut funding if the school were to “participate in the extremist agenda of Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) or propagate the lie that biological sex can be changed.”

“We all know it cannot,” Steinmetz added.

In response to the forfeits, San Jose State released a statement saying, “It is disappointing that our SJSU student athletes, who are in full compliance with NCAA and Mountain West rules and regulations, are being denied opportunities to compete.” The Spartans (9-3) opened the season with nine straight victories but have lost three straight matches since this controversy erupted and their best player, Nayeli Ti’a, went down with an injury.

Nobody on either side of the transgender athlete debate disputes that the San Jose State player in question has fully complied with NCAA rules.

In January 2022, the NCAA updated its transgender athlete participation policy to a sport-by-sport approach that allows each individual governing body to determine its own eligibility criteria. USA Volleyball requires transgender women’s athletes to submit documentation of their testosterone levels for at least the previous year to prove they do not exceed the “normal female reference range for their age group.”

Different points of view

To the first openly transgender woman to win an NCAA title, the controversy that has engulfed San Jose State women’s volleyball is “heartbreaking.”

In 2019, CeCé Telfer won a Division II national championship in the women’s 400-meter hurdles while competing for Franklin Pierce University. The attention that her achievement received sparked hate mail, death threats and renewed calls for legislation banning transgender athletes from competing against women.

“It’s not just hurtful, it’s costing us our lives,” Telfer wrote on Instagram earlier this month. “These harmful laws and actions make people feel entitled to dehumanize and vilify us, to deny us basic rights and dignity.

“We have to do better. This fight isn’t just about keeping trans women out of sports — it’s a scapegoat for deeper bigotry, a cover for oppression and even the erasure of entire communities.”

When asked if she sympathizes at all with the plight of the San Jose State player in question, Liilii told Yahoo Sports, “I don’t think I’m comfortable disclosing that.” Liilii recalled noticing subtle differences about the strength and athleticism of the San Jose State player even before she had any suspicions that the player might be transgender.

“Last year, I was a junior and this person was on the team,” Liilii said. “ I vividly remember seeing this person hit over our block, which is pretty scary as a defender.”

At the time, Liilii thought, “Maybe this person is just a really good volleyball player.” The revelation that this player might be transgender made Liilii see it differently.

Liilii described it as “scary” volunteering to be the face of her team’s protest, but the backing that she has received over the past 72 hours has helped. Among those to voice support is Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, who wrote Tuesday on X, “I wholeheartedly respect the decision of the players.”

“No student athlete should ever be pressured to play a game where they don’t feel safe — period,” Lombardo added.

That night, when Nevada won a five-set thriller against Utah State, Liilii found some familiar faces seated behind the Wolfpack bench. There to show their support, and perhaps curry favor with voters, were Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sam Brown and former 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard.

Despite her university’s stance that it cannot officially cancel the upcoming San Jose State match for legal reasons, Liilii said that she and her teammates aren’t wavering. She reiterated that they fully intend to forfeit even if that means damaging their hopes of contending for the Mountain West regular season title.

How will Nevada players approach it if they draw San Jose State in the Mountain West tournament next month with an NCAA tournament bid at stake? Liilii acknowledged “the stakes are higher then” and said “that would be something my team and I would have to discuss.”

“I just hope that what we’re doing will lead to change by then,” Liilii added. “I just hope the people in power at least see that there are women in their conference who feel a certain way. I mean, five teams have forfeited already.”

The main purpose of the protest for Liilii is to be an advocate for change, to, in her words, “stand up for what is right.”

“I hope the future generations won’t have to be in the position that me and my teammates are in and the young women of the Mountain West Conference are in,” Liilii said. “I have nieces and I have little sisters. It would break my heart if they have to go through this as well.”

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