Volleyball team risks forfeiting championship to stand for ‘future of women’s sports’

The women of the University of Nevada at Reno volleyball team plan to defy their school by refusing to compete against a team with a biological male player.

“We are risking our main goal, which is a Mountain West championship,” University of Nevada women’s volleyball team captain and outside hitter Sia Liilii told The Daily Signal. “A team is a group that bands together to reach a common goal, and that is the purpose of our spot-on the team. No one wants to lose and put that at risk, but this is bigger than wins and losses.”

“It is the future of women’s sports,” she explained.

The majority of the Nevada volleyball team voted to forfeit its Oct. 26 game against California’s San Jose State University, where biological male volleyball player Blaire Fleming has led an almost undefeated season.

The Nevada women are the fifth team in the Mountain West Conference to boycott San Jose State University this season on behalf of women’s sports.

“Our team had multiple meetings to discuss this issue,” Liilii said. “We all have a voice that deserves to be heard. A vast majority of our team voted to stand in solidarity with the teams that forfeited, and as a team, we sent a letter to our administrators letting them know we would be releasing a statement that we will not be playing.”

The Nevada women’s volleyball team sent a statement to the university saying the team stands “united in solidarity with the volleyball teams of Southern Utah University, Boise State University, the University of Wyoming, and Utah State University.”

“We demand that our right to safety and fair competition on the court be upheld. We refuse to participate in any match that advances injustice against female athletes,” the statement says.

After the women decided not to compete against San Jose State, the University of Nevada at Reno administration released a statement expressing its intent to go forward with the game.

“The University intends to move forward with the match as scheduled, and the players may choose not to participate in the match on the day of the contest,” the statement said. “No players will be subject to any team disciplinary action for their decision not to participate in the match.”

Despite lack of support from their school, the Nevada volleyball players still plan to boycott the game. They are prepared to face whatever comes their way.

Athletic Director Stephanie Rempe did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.

Liilii said the team’s stance is not about transgender player Fleming, but the future of women’s sports.

“Men do not belong in women’s sports,” the college senior said. “If you are born a biological male, you do not belong in women’s sports. This is not about one individual athlete. It is about fair competition and safety for all women’s sports.”

Fleming’s teammate, San Jose State University volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser, applauded the Nevada team for their “courage” in taking a stand for women’s sports.

Between now and Oct. 26, when Nevada is scheduled to face San Jose State, the players are taking things game by game.

“We have other matches to focus on at the time, so that is the center of our attention and enjoying playing together,” Liilii said.

High-profile politicians, including former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii; Senate candidate Sam Brown, R-Nev.; and Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., attended Nevada’s Tuesday game, in which the team beat Utah State University 3-2.

“I am so proud of you,” Gabbard told Liilii, according to the Reno Gazette Journal.

In 2020, Gabbard, while still in Congress, and Mullin introduced the Protect Women’s Sports Act to keep males out of women’s and girls’ athletics.

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican, also expressed his support for the Nevada team, saying, “No student athlete should ever be pressured to play a game where they don’t feel safe—period.”

Biological males competing in women’s sports is expected to be a “sleeper” issue in the 2024 elections.

Nearly three-quarters (72%) of registered voters think biological males should not be allowed to participate in women’s and girls’ sports, according to new national polling from Scott Rasmussen shared with The Daily Signal.

Republicans have highlighted Democratic support for males playing women’s sports in ad campaigns against them. An ad against Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, says Brown is “too liberal for Ohio” because he voted “to let transgender biological men participate in women’s sports.”

An ad in Wisconsin says Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin “voted to let biological men into women’s sports.”

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., “voted to let men compete against our girls,” and “those aren’t Montana values,” another ad running in Montana says.

Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump pledged to “ban” transgender-identifying biological males from competing in women’s sports in a town hall with only female voters hosted by Fox News’ Harris Faulkner on Wednesday.

Trump referenced an incident last week in which San Jose’s Fleming spiked a volleyball in the face of a San Diego State women’s volleyball player, knocking her to the ground.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” he said. “But other people, even in volleyball, they’ve been permanently—I mean, they’ve been really hurt badly. Women playing men.”

North Carolina high school volleyball player Payton McNabb suffered a concussion and neck injury in November 2022 after a transgender opponent spiked the ball in her face at an estimated 76 mph.

The net in men’s volleyball is more than 7.5 inches higher than in the women’s game to compensate for the increased velocity, jump height, and power men have. Even men would be more likely to get concussions if they played volleyball against each other with a women’s net height, according to Marshi Smith of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports.

The mother of a Nevada women’s volleyball player told The Daily Signal she is proud of her daughter’s team. The mother asked to remain anonymous for her daughter’s privacy.

“I’m dumbfounded how the trans group asks for ‘tolerance,’ yet when biological females ask for safe places in our locker rooms (which is supposed to be a given under Title IX), fair competition, and safety on the court,” the mother said, “we are denied and labeled hateful and transphobic.”

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]

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