Female volleyball team forfeits game against trans player earning rebuke from University of Nevada

University says the team’s decision does not represent its stance and that it intends to go through with the match

The University of Nevada has rebuked its female volleyball team for sitting out a match against a team with a transgender player.
The Nevada women’s volleyball team forfeited a match this week against San Jose State, whose team includes transgender player Blaire Fleming, citing a lack of “safety and fair competition on the court”. Four other teams have previously done the same.
A teammate of Ms Fleming, who is 6ft 1, has previously claimed in a legal complaint that her shots were too powerful for players to “fully protect themselves”.
However, the university has said the team’s decision “does not represent” its stance and that it intends to go through with the match.
The Nevada Wolfpack team said on Monday that it would “forfeit against San Jose State University and stand united in solidarity with the volleyball teams of Southern Utah University, Boise State University, the University of Wyoming, and Utah State University”.
It continued, in a statement to news outlet Outkick: “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 University of Nevada responded that the team’s decision had been made “independently, and without consultation with the university or the athletic department”.
It continued: “The players’ decision also does not represent the position of the university.
“The university and its athletic programs are governed by the Nevada Constitution and Nevada law, which strictly protect equality of rights under the law, and that equality of rights shall not be denied or abridged by this state or any of its subdivisions.”
The university said it was obliged by federal law to provide “competition in an inclusive and supportive environment” and “intends to move forward with the match as scheduled”.
It added that players may choose not to participate in the match, and would not face any disciplinary action for doing so.
Stavros Anthony, the Lieutenant Governor of Nevada, praised the volleyball team’s “courageous decision” and said they had his “full support and admiration”.
More than a dozen female athletes have joined a class action lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) for allowing transgender athletes including Ms Fleming to compete in women’s sports.
In October, Ms Fleming provoked controversy when she hit the ball so hard over the net – a shot known as a “spike” – in a match against San Diego state that it knocked a woman off her feet.
Brooke Slusser, a teammate of Ms Fleming’s who has joined the NCAA lawsuit, said in her complaint that her shots “were travelling upward of 80 mph, which was faster than she had ever seen a woman hit a volleyball”.
She added, according to the New York Post: “The girls were doing everything they could to dodge Fleming’s spikes but still could not fully protect themselves.”