In Saturday’s Mountain West tournament final, San Jose State’s volleyball team—the focus of a national discussion regarding women in sports—lost to Colorado State 27-25, 25-20, 23-25, 25-16, ending the Spartans’ season.
The conference’s automatic berth to the 64-team NCAA Tournament went to the Rams (20-10).
The season at San Jose State was characterized by forfeits, few demonstrations, and the discussion of gender identity turning into a political issue during an election year. 14-6 was the Spartan score.
The Mountain West tournament was not the end of the controversy.
Hours after defeating Utah State to guarantee a berth against the Spartans in Friday’s semifinals, Boise State, which twice skipped regular-season games against San Jose State, withdrew from the conference tournament on Wednesday night.
Although the Broncos did not specifically state their reasons for pulling out, players from a number of different schools recently sued the league and San Jose State officials in Colorado, demanding that a Spartans player be prohibited from playing in the tournament. They named a transgender player on the San Jose State volleyball team and referenced unidentified reports claiming she was on the team.
The player was permitted to participate when U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Kato Crews in Denver issued a ruling on Monday, which was upheld the next day by a federal appeals court.
San Jose State was seeded second in the conference tournament and was given a first-round bye after suffering six forfeit victories as a result of opponents’ boycotts during the regular season.
Mountain West members Wyoming, Utah State, Nevada, and Southern Utah, in addition to Boise State, canceled games against the Spartans this season. The athletes from Nevada stated that they “refuse to participate in any match that advances injustice against female athletes,” but they did not elaborate.
San Jose State has not acknowledged that it has a transgender women’s volleyball player, despite various media outlets reporting those and other details. Because the player has not made any public remarks regarding her gender identity and has turned down an interview request from school officials, the Associated Press is not revealing her name.
Before the most recent election, transgender women’s involvement in women’s sports became a contentious political issue.
On Friday, there were two protesters outside Cox Pavilion, but on Saturday, there were none. Additionally, there were no overt indications of animosity from the about 100 spectators for the championship match.
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