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Nevada becomes fifth team to lose match against SJSU volleyball, putting postseason in jeopardy

Online Niel October 26, 2024

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) — After the University of Nevada women’s volleyball players refused to play against San Jose State University, the school became the fifth school to forfeit a match against the Spartans this season and the decision was applauded by a member of its own lists of SJSU.

SJSU’s women’s volleyball team continues to be at the center of a national debate about the participation of transgender athletes in sports.

The controversy could now cost them their first NCAA tournament appearance in more than two decades.

But it also highlights a rise in hateful rhetoric against the LGBTQ+ community.

“This is not what America should be,” said Gabrielle Antolovich, president of the Billy DeFrank LGBTQ+ Community Center. “But it’s very dangerous now.”

The University of Nevada is now the fifth team to forfeit a match against San Jose State following unconfirmed claims by a Spartans volleyball player that one of her own teammates is transgender.

After moving Saturday’s game to San Jose from Reno, citing athlete safety, Nevada school officials said the game would go ahead.

But several Wolfpack players refused to play in any game that “advances injustice against female athletes,” forcing the team to drop out.

Spartans volleyball co-captain Brook Slusser applauded the decision.

She is one of many current and former athletes part of a lawsuit challenging the NCAA’s Title IX protections regarding transgender athletes in women’s sports.

Slusser made his first on-camera comments about the forfeits this season in an exclusive interview with Fox News. She did not respond to our requests for comment.

“This is just an amazing step in the right direction for women’s sports, being able to finally stand up and say, ‘no, that’s not happening, that’s not right,'” Slusser said. “And that’s amazing. So, I can’t do anything but support their decision because if I were in their shoes, I’d do the same thing.”

Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said the losses volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State “is not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken by what what happened this season around the Spartans and their opponents.

SJSU has beefed up security amid growing threats against the team and coaches.

A spokesperson says its athletes adhere to NCAA and conference standards and that “we will continue to take steps to prioritize the health and safety of our students as they pursue their earned opportunities to compete.”

Antolovich loves team sports and the bonds it builds, but fears this situation has become about more than one athlete.

“There is a certain fraction of the community that uses transgender people as a way to bombard the LGBTQ+ community with hate,” Antolovich said.

The Spartans need to play 19 games to make the NCAA Tournament, they are 14.

With 8 games remaining, if more losses occur, the Spartans may have to request a waiver to allow them to play if they qualify.

SJSU is scheduled to play Wyoming and Boise State in November, two schools that have already lost games against the Spartans.

The top 6 teams qualify for the Mountain West Tournament, and the Spartans are among those teams right now with a 7-3 conference record after the Nevada loss.