The much-anticipated volleyball match between San Jose State University (SJSU) and their transgender star, Blaire Fleming, and the University of Nevada has been moved from Nevada to San Jose State.
SJSU and Nevada made the surprise announcement in a joint statement on Tuesday.
“The Mountain West Conference women’s volleyball match between Nevada and San José State University scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 26, has been moved from Reno, Nevada, to San José, California, read a joint statement from both schools.” The decision to move the location of the match has been made in the best interest of both programs and the well-being of the student-athletes, coaches, athletic staff, and spectators. The decision has been made with the approval of the Mountain West Conference.”
Why would Nevada agree to shift the location of a game scheduled to take place at its campus? One consideration is security. Another is that they don’t believe the match will happen.
The University of Nevada initially announced that their October 26th matchup against SJSU would go on as planned despite multiple boycotts from other teams who refused to play due to safety concerns over the presence of a male player on SJSU’s roster.
However, the school made that announcement without consulting its players, who, in a team vote, went against the school’s wishes and decided not to play the game. Undaunted, the school disregarded the players’ vote and insisted the game would go regardless.
No official announcement has been made since the Nevada women’s volleyball team claimed they intend to honor the team vote and not play.
The controversy over the upcoming match between SJSU and Nevada comes amid a lawsuit against the NCAA regarding SJSU’s alleged refusal to inform team members that a male was on the roster.
Brooke Slusser, a teammate of Fleming’s, claims she shared locker rooms and living spaces with Fleming for two years before learning that Fleming was a male. After becoming aware of Fleming’s gender, Slusser joined the lawsuit headed by women’s sports advocate and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines.
Joining that lawsuit reportedly triggered a threat against Slusser, which caused SJSU to increase security at games.
“One of my teammates got a DM, basically saying that she, and then my team, needed to keep my distance from me on gameday against Colorado State because it wasn’t going to be a good situation for me to be in and that my team needed to keep their distance,” Slusser told Fox News Digital. “They needed to keep their distance from me during the game because something was going to happen to me.
“This was the first physical threat when we could easily see that they wanted to physically harm one of us.”
Nevada claims it will not take disciplinary action against players for refusing to play against SJSU. However, it feels the need to publicly state that the match will go forward due to gender discrimination provisions in the Nevada Constitution.
“The university made the decision not to declare a forfeiture and move forward with hosting the match as scheduled based on several factors,” a Nevada spokesperson said.” As a public university, the university is legally prohibited by Section 24 of the Nevada Constitution and other laws and regulations to declare a forfeit for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”
