The San Jose State University women’s volleyball team is at the center of a new lawsuit against transgender women who compete in women’s college sports.

A lawsuit filed Wednesday by team co-captain Brooke Slusser and others seeks an injunction barring San Jose State from allowing a player Slusser identified as transgender to compete in the Mountain West Conference championship Nov. 27-30. in Las Vegas. The lawsuit also seeks to bar the conference from allowing the player to compete in the championship.

Slusser — who earlier this season joined a class action lawsuit against the NCAA over its rules allowing certain transgender women to play women’s sports — and two former Spartans have filed suit against San Jose State’s women’s volleyball coach, two school officials, the California State University system and the NCAA’s Mountain West Conference .

The suit accuses coach Todd Kress, senior associate director of athletics Laura Alexander, senior director of school media relations Michelle Smith McDonald and other defendants of manipulating conference rules, reducing athletic opportunities for women, spreading inaccurate information, using their positions to “refrigerate and suppress”. speech I don’t agree with.” It also accuses them of punishing dozens of female volleyball players “for taking a public stand for their right to compete in a separate sports category, all in a concerted effort to shut down the debate about women’s rights in sports.” .

In an emailed statement, San Jose State said it received a copy of the 132-page lawsuit late Wednesday afternoon and would not comment on its allegations.

The conference said it prioritizes the best interests of its athletes and takes great care to adhere to NCAA and conference policies.

“We take all concerns regarding the welfare and fairness of student-athletes seriously,” the conference said in an emailed statement.

This news organization is not naming the player Slusser and others identified as transgender because the player has not confirmed it.

The lawsuit adds more fuel to America’s heated debate over transgender women’s participation in women’s sports. Like the lawsuit against the NCAA, it is funded by the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, an advocacy group co-founded by former Stanford All-American tennis player Kim Jones.

The furor over the player’s presence on the team generated national headlines and prompted four college teams to forfeit games against San Jose State in protest, with two more forfeits pending.

Joining Slusser in the process are former Spartan volleyball players Alyssa Sugai and Elle Patterson, San Jose State associate head coach Melissa Batie-Smoose and eight players from the four schools that lost matches against the Spartans: Nevada; Utah State; Wyoming; and Boise State.