San Jose State’s Mountain West volleyball semifinal opponent set as Boise State advances

LAS VEGAS – Boise State has not yet made a decision whether it will play against San Jose State in Friday’s Mountain West women’s volleyball semifinal after forfeiting two matches against the Spartans in the regular season.

Boise State defeated Utah State by a score of 3 sets to 1 in Tuesday’s quarterfinal, winning the first, third and fourth sets. The match was contested between two of the five teams that opted out of playing against San Jose State this season, causing uncertainty about whether the winner would move forward with playing the Spartans in the semis.

“I don’t know what’s going to go on,” Boise State media relations director Doug Link said. “I think we’re playing, but at this point in time there’s nothing more to say.”

When pressed further about whether he personally thought Boise State would opt to play, Link again answered that he did not know and that there was nothing more the university could say at this time.

When asked if there were any external pressures contributing to the decision, Link said he wasn’t able to comment. He did not provide a timetable for the impending decision. The match is scheduled for 4 p.m. PT Friday in Las Vegas.

SJSU was awarded six conference wins and seven overall due to opponents refusing to play. None of the schools declared why they forfeited, but after a lawsuit filed in September by Spartans co-captain Brooke Slusser and others alleged that an SJSU teammate was transgender, arguing she had advantages over opponents and teammates. Neither San Jose State nor the player have commented on the allegation, nor has any school of the schools that forfeited.

A legal motion in a second lawsuit seeking to bar the player from the tournament was denied by a federal judge on Monday, and that decision was upheld upon appeal Tuesday.

In large part because of those forfeitures, San Jose State earned the No. 2 seed and a tournament bye into the conference semifinal. The Spartans enter with a 12-5 record in conference play but they’ve gone 6-5 in Mountain West games that were actually contested. Boise State earned the No. 6 seed, going 10-8 in conference play.