Repercussions from an ongoing controversy enveloping San Jose State University’s women’s volleyball team have manifested in a forfeit from Boise State. Despite being scheduled to face San Jose State in a Mountain West Conference match, Boise State unexpectedly backed out. The news followed soon after their decision to not participate in the match against SJSU, with no distinct reasons given.
“The scheduled game at San José State on Saturday will not be represented by Boise State volleyball,” the official statement noted. Without any specific reasons constituting the forfeit, the Mountain West Conference will categorically mark this as a loss for Boise State as per its guidelines. The subsequent game for the Broncos is lined up against Air Force on October 3.
Boise State women’s volleyball announces it will not play San Jose State because the team’s best player is a male.
Sources close to the situation tell me the players have the complete support of the school, coaches and parents. pic.twitter.com/bICfJgwBLU
— David Hookstead (@dhookstead) September 27, 2024
In response to Boise State’s unexpected decision, the NCAA released its own comment. The statement emphasized that collegiate athletics are the zenith of women’s sports within the United States. The association reassured that NCAA members will persist in their endeavours to uphold Title IX, pour continued investments into women’s sports, and ensure equitable competition for all student-athletes across NCAA championships.
This incident is the latest episode in a string of controversies associated with the SJSU women’s volleyball team. Previously, Blaire Fleming, a student-athlete at SJSU and an outside and right-side hitter on the women’s volleyball team, was involved in a lawsuit against the NCAA for alleged Title IX violations along with a handful of fellow female athletes.
Unusually, Fleming is a transgender athlete who has competed in three seasons at SJSU, after initially playing at Coastal Carolina. Tensions surrounding her participation further escalated when a team member Brooke Slusser, along with other female athletes including ex-NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines, initiated a legal allegation against the NCAA. They contested that the NCAA’s policies concerning transgender athletes compromise not only the essence of equitable women’s sports but also pose potential threats to the safety of female athletes.
Slusser purported in the lawsuit that she was not initially cognizant of Fleming’s transgender identity, inspite of sharing rooms during away games. Furthermore, Slusser expressed apprehensions over the potential injury risks posed by Fleming to opposition players.
“Fleming’s spikes were clocking up to 80 mph, a speed that is unprecedented for a woman volleyball player,” Slusser alleged in the complaint. She elaborated that the players struggled to shield themselves against Fleming’s powerful spikes and lived in constant fear of failing to do so.
Slusser’s counsel, Bill Bock, expressed his views about the case stating, “The pivotal concern in this case pertains to the inherent safety risks in a game of volleyball. These risks get amplified in intense practices. This existing policy, sadly, results in the potential snatching away of the sporting dreams of women players, effectively transferring them to men, while simultaneously jeopardizing women’s health and safety.”
Boise State isn’t the first team to give SJSU’s scheduled match a miss. Earlier this month, Southern Utah had only engaged with two of the three opponents at the Santa Clara Tournament, sidestepping the game with SJSU.
“The Southern Utah University volleyball team has decided to partake only in a pair of non-conference matches at the Santa Clara Tournament this weekend,” an official statement from the university stated. Emboldened by this decision, the Thunderbirds are looking forward to leveraging these matches to prepare for a successful season. Southern Utah has candidly informed the tournament organizers and the opposing teams of this decision, wishing them success for their ongoing seasons.
Despite these hurdles, the Spartans have managed to maintain their unbeaten run this season with a commendable 9-0 record. In their most recent triumph against Fresno State, Fleming emerged as the standout player, leading her team with an impressive 16 kills.
While discussions about ensuring safety and fairness in women’s sports continue to take center stage, it’s evident that every decision made has implications. These challenges bring light to the complexity of the situation, highlighting the need for conversations around promoting equitability, diversity, and inclusion in sports.
With these newfound challenges, collegiate sports, particularly women’s volleyball, find themselves under a spotlight. It is crucial that moving forward, sports governance bodies like the NCAA find a balance between upholding the fairness of women’s competitive sports, the safety of athletes, and the principles of inclusion that modern sports have come to embody.