San Jose State volleyball faces Mountain West tourney uncertainty after loss

SAN JOSE — The story of the 2024 San Jose State women’s volleyball team remains far from finished. If the past several months have been any indication, many more chapters await. Head coach Todd Kress is too aware of this reality.

“I know that our last day on the court as a team, when that comes, is not the end of this team’s story,” Kress said. “It may not end for a while, but together we wrote the most important chapter: the one where we finished what we started.”

With a 3-2 loss Tuesday to Fresno State (19-25, 25-19, 25-21, 20-25, 15-12), the Spartans concluded a tumultuous regular season in which the program found itself at the center of a nationwide debate regarding the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports.

Now, the Spartans can only wait and see what lies ahead at next week’s Mountain West Conference tournament in Las Vegas.

San Jose State finished the season with an overall record of 14-6 and a conference record of 12-6, six of those wins coming by forfeit from four schools (Boise State, Nevada, Utah State, Wyoming). Their next match will be in Las Vegas at the Mountain West Conference tournament. The team’s fate, though, remains ambiguous.

If San Jose State had won on Tuesday, it would have secured the No. 2 seed and a bye into the conference semifinals. The Spartans’ seeding now depends on the results of Mountain West matches Thursday and Saturday. (Boise State forfeited a match with the Spartans scheduled for Thursday). San Jose State could match up against a team that forfeited a regular-season match.

“We lost seven opportunities (to play), but I’m also very proud of the opportunities that we took advantage of and how we persevered throughout the season,” Kress said. “That’s what I’m most proud of. That’s what I will take away from the season. And granted, the season is far from over. We still have, hopefully, a whole week of volleyball to play next week.”

That may not come to pass, depending on a federal judge’s ruling.

Team co-captain Brooke Slusser, associate head coach Melissa Batie-Smoose and other current and former Mountain West players filed a lawsuit last week that seeks to ban an alleged transgender player from the conference tournament and could keep the Spartans from playing altogether. Kress, one of several defendants in the lawsuit, did not comment on the lawsuit. Slusser was part of a class-action lawsuit earlier this season against the NCAA over trans participation as well.

This publication is not naming the player that the lawsuit identifies as transgender, as the player has not confirmed this.

Batie-Smoose, who has been suspended, filed a Title IX complaint last month about how the team had handled having a transgender player on its roster. The Mountain West announced over the weekend that it had found insufficient evidence in its investigation of the matter.

“I’ve always supported Title IX for our student-athletes no matter what program I’ve been at. In regards to additional scholarships, extra travel money, whatever it may be, I’ve always been an advocate for Title IX wherever I’ve been. I’m also the same here,” Kress said. “I’m also an advocate for humanity, an advocate for social justice and racial justice. I think the two can co-exist at the same time, and unfortunately, that is perhaps where the intersection of the two has been conflicted and created some chaos, trouble, that sort of thing.”

Tuesday’s match at Spartan Gym featured no shortage of support for San Jose State’s alleged transgender player.

San Jose State student Finn Albano, a member of the school’s Students for a Democratic Society on Tuesday, brought a sign reading, “Block out the haters.” Fellow student Javier Ruiz, also part of Students for a Democratic Society, had his own sign reading, “Dare to struggle, dare to win.” Additionally, several spectators wore shirts in support of the alleged transgender player on San Jose State.

“After recent events during the election, we need to start finding our own people and showing support for each other, especially now because things are sensitive nowadays,” Albano said. “Then, also, for myself because I identify in that kind of manner, so it’s a way for me to support myself as well.”

That support was not unilateral. One spectator, Amanda Kovattana, brought a sign in support of Slusser.

Kovattana also expressed support for the Independent Council on Women’s Sport (ICONS), an anti-trans participation group backing the lawsuits.

“I think it will succeed,” Kvattana said of the lawsuit seeking to keep the player out of the Mountain West tournament.

Another spectator held a sign the entire match that read, “Stop gaslighting women & girls” but declined to comment to this publication during the match.