A San Jose State volleyball player is eligible to play in her conference tournament this week, a federal judge in Denver ruled Monday, despite complaints from competitors objecting to her participation on the grounds that she is transgender.
U.S. District Judge Kato Crews denied a motion for emergency injunctive relief to ban the San Jose State player, strip the Spartans of six league wins earned by forfeit and prevent the team from participating in the Mountain West tournament that begins Wednesday.
In his 28-page decision, Crews barely addressed the alleged fairness and safety issues raised by San Jose State co-captain Brooke Slusser and other Mountain West women’s volleyball players. Crews instead focused on the timing of the plaintiffs’ complaint, filed less than two weeks before the Mountain West tournament was scheduled to begin in Las Vegas.
The Mountain West’s transgender participation policy has been in place since 2022 and all teams have been made aware of it, Crews noted. The judge argued that the plaintiffs “could have sought an injunction much earlier” since they had known about the alleged transgender San Jose State player for months.
“The court found that the movers’ delay was not reasonable,” Crews wrote. “There is no evidence to suggest that they were prevented from seeking emergency help sooner, and the rush to litigate these complex issues now, via a mandatory injunction, places a heavy burden on the MWC at the eleventh hour.”
San Jose State is the No. 2 seed in the Mountain West tournament and faces a first-round bye. The Spartans will face the winner of the quarterfinal game between third-seeded Utah State and sixth-seeded Boise State on Friday.
Utah and Boise State were among four Mountain West schools to lose games against San Jose State during the regular season. Nevada and Wyoming also chose to boycott rather than face an opponent believed to have a transgender player among its top hitters.
“The vast majority of our team decided this is something we want to take a stand on,” University of Nevada forward Sia Liilii told Yahoo Sports last month. “We didn’t want to play against a male player.
“At all meetings of our team, the fact that men do not belong in women’s sports kept coming back. If you’re born a biological male, you don’t belong in women’s sports. It is not so much about this individual athlete. It’s about fair competition and safety for everyone.”
Yahoo Sports is not naming the San Jose State volleyball player in question because neither she nor her university have publicly commented on her gender identity. San Jose State said all of its women’s volleyball players are eligible to participate under NCAA and Mountain West Conference rules.
The NCAA allows transgender athletes to compete if they meet eligibility criteria set by their sport’s individual governing body. In the case of women’s volleyball, this means that transgender athletes must submit documentation of testosterone levels for at least the previous year to prove that they do not exceed the “normal reference range for women for their age group.”
“We are pleased that the court rejected an eleventh-hour attempt to change these rules,” San Jose State said in a statement Monday. “Our team is looking forward to competing in the Mountain West Volleyball Tournament this week.”
Before San Jose State women’s volleyball found itself at the center of a national firestorm surrounding transgender athletes, it couldn’t have been darker. This is a program that last won a conference title in 1985, last made the NCAA Tournament in 2001 and rarely draws more than a few hundred fans to home games.
The player, who is believed to be transgender, had already played two seasons without incident at San Jose State before this year. She did not make the all-conference team, nor was she among the Mountain West leaders in kills or kill percentage.
Her presence first gained attention last April when Reduxx published a story claiming the San Jose State volleyball player was transgender and had denied her biological gender to teammates and opponents. The self-labeled “pro-woman, pro-child” outlet said it began reporting the story after receiving a tip from an opponent’s mother.
In September, Slusser joined a federal lawsuit challenging the NCAA’s policy of allowing transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports. Slusser lived with the player in question after transferring from Alabama last fall, but he didn’t learn about his teammate’s alleged gender identity until after Reduxx leaked it.
In the legal filing, Slusser insisted that her allegedly transgender teammate hits the ball with such force that it gives San Jose State an “unfair advantage” and poses a safety risk to other players during practices and games. Slusser claimed the player’s spikes traveled “faster than she’s ever seen a woman hit a volleyball” in practice.
These comments from Slusser threw a lit match on the kindling pile. Local and national media began covering the story, activist groups attacked San Jose State, and right-wing politicians exerted their influence.
On the eve of the Sept. 28 game at San Jose State, Boise State released a 48-word statement revealing it would not play and accept the loss. Wyoming, Utah State and Nevada followed suit. In any case, the schools chose not to explain why they were not playing. In each case, the announcements were followed by a social media post from a state senator or governor applauding the decision.
The question since then has been how that quartet of programs would respond if San Jose State were tied in the Mountain West tournament. Would they boycott again knowing that an NCAA tournament bid was at stake and that a loss would likely end their season?
That question still remains after Crews refused to grant the injunction.
The judge wrote: “An emergency proposal would risk confusion and disrupt months of planning. … The actions favor the MWC’s interest in organizing and continuing the tournament as planned.”