THIRD ladies’s faculty volleyball workforce refuse to play in opposition to the identical transgender opponent

A 3rd ladies’s faculty volleyball workforce has forfeited a match in opposition to San Jose State amid controversy over transgender participant Blaire Fleming.

Fleming, a redshirt junior of their third season on San Jose State’s roster, is on the heart of a class-action lawsuit filed in opposition to the NCAA after it was revealed they’re a organic male.

Greater than a dozen feminine athletes, together with one of many participant’s present teammates, at the moment are accusing the NCAA of knowingly violating a regulation that prohibits sex-based discrimination by permitting a transgender participant to compete in ladies’s sports activities.

Amid the uproar over Fleming, Southern Utah and Boise State each refused to play in opposition to San Jose State final month, albeit with out giving a particular purpose as to why.

And now the College of Wyoming has adopted swimsuit and forfeited its proposed recreation with the college on Saturday, once more with out offering a purpose for doing so.

Fleming, who performs as an out of doors and right-side hitter, has loved two seasons with San Jose State after beforehand taking part in at Coastal Carolina. The 6ft 1in volleyball star has helped the workforce transfer to 10-0 thus far this yr.

San Jose State responded to the controversy over its participant in an announcement to OutKick on Tuesday, saying: ‘It’s disappointing that our SJSU scholar athletes, who’re in full compliance with NCAA and Mountain West guidelines and laws, are being denied alternatives to compete.

‘We’re dedicated to supporting our student-athletes via these challenges and of their means to compete in an inclusive, honest, protected and respectful atmosphere.’

The Mountain West Convention has been notified by the Unbiased Council on Girls’s Sports activities (ICONS) about athletes’ security considerations concerning Fleming.

Outkick has printed parts of ICONS’ letter to the Mountain West Convention. 

‘Over the previous couple of weeks, we have now spoken with distraught student-athletes and their mother and father, coaches, and directors all through the Mountain West Convention (MWC) concerning a disaster in MWC ladies’s volleyball,’ the letter to the convention learn.

One among Fleming’s teammates and former roommates, Brooke Slusser, has stated the participant beforehand admitted to being biologically male, per Outkick.

Slusser, who has joined the lawsuit filed in opposition to the NCAA, claims she felt involved for her security after discovering one in every of her teammates was transgender, which she says she was unaware of regardless of sharing rooms collectively on workforce journeys.

The San Jose State co-captain additionally expressed considerations about Fleming competing in opposition to feminine gamers on the court docket. 

‘Brooke estimates that Fleming’s spikes have been touring upward of 80 mph, which was sooner than she had ever seen a girl hit a volleyball,’ Slusser’s criticism learn.

‘The ladies have been doing all the pieces they might to dodge Fleming’s spikes however nonetheless couldn’t totally shield themselves.’

Riley Gaines, a critic of trans athletes in ladies’s sports activities who has connections to each ICONS and Outkick, issued her personal assertion to the Fox-owned web site after Boise State refused to play in opposition to San Jose State final month. 

‘I commend Boise State’s athletic division and everybody concerned within the determination to forfeit their match in opposition to undefeated San Jose State,’ Gaines wrote. ‘Some ideas transcend profitable on the court docket, and the security and well-being of feminine athletes is one in every of them.

‘It is encouraging to witness a rising variety of establishments prioritizing equity and athlete security over compelled inclusion. 

‘I hope to see extra universities comply with the lead of Boise State and Southern Utah, standing up for what’s proper and defending the integrity of ladies’s sports activities.’