Boise State’s women’s volleyball team, which advanced to semifinals after it defeated Utah State on Wednesday, has withdrawn from an upcoming tournament where it would face a transgender-identified male player on the opposing team.
After winning its game against Utah State in the Mountain West Volleyball Championship, Boise State was supposed to face the San Jose State University Spartans, which has a male athlete named Blaire Fleming. Boise State pulled out instead after already boycotting regular-season matches with San Jose State twice before.
“The decision to not continue to play in the 2024 Mountain West Volleyball Championship tournament was not an easy one,” Boise State Athletics said in a statement. “Our team overcame forfeitures to earn a spot in the tournament field and fought for the win over Utah State in the first round on Wednesday. They should not have to forgo this opportunity while waiting for a more thoughtful and better system that serves all athletes.”
With its forfeit victory, San Jose State goes straight to finals, where it will compete against the winner of the San Diego State-Colorado State matchup. The final victor will earn a spot in the NCAA Division I Women’s volleyball tournament, according to OutKick. Besides Boise State, other members of the Mountain West conference including Wyoming, Utah State, Nevada, and Southern Utah canceled games this season against the Spartans.
Nevada’s team said they “refuse to participate in any match that advances injustice against female athletes,” according to the Associated Press.
On Monday, a judge ruled against plaintiffs in a Colorado lawsuit demanding the conference and San Jose State officials make men ineligible to compete in the women’s division of the tournament.
Judge S. Kato Crews wrote in a ruling that the plaintiffs, including players from various schools in the conference and a former coach, “have failed to meet their burden to show irreparable harm, a likelihood of success on the merits, or that the balance of harms or equities is in their favor.”
The judge argued that the timing of the lawsuit was suspect because the teams had competed against each other, along with the trans-identifying male athlete, since 2022, and that no objections had been brought until 2024. The conference’s Transgender Participation Policy states that teams who forfeit against another team over a transgender player will be issued a loss.
“All San Jose State University student-athletes are eligible to participate in their sports under NCAA and Mountain West Conference rules,” the university said in a statement following Crews‘a decision, according to ESPN. “We are gratified that the court rejected an eleventh-hour attempt to change those rules. Our team looks forward to competing in the Mountain West volleyball tournament this week.”
A federal appeals court upheld the decision on Tuesday. The plaintiffs appealed the decision.
Since Republicans secured the trifecta of government in the 2024 election, some media postmortems have questioned whether Democrats’ obsession with gender ideology and identity politics alienated moderate voters, especially on the women’s sports issue.