Transgender player on San Jose State women’s volleyball team can compete in championship series, judge rules

A bid by the co-captain of San Jose State University’s women’s volleyball team to get a transgender teammate banned from the Mountain West Conference Championship has failed.

Co-captain Brooke Slusser and her co-plaintiffs waited too long to seek a court order barring the transgender player from the tournament, which starts Wednesday, Colorado federal court judge S. Kato Crews ruled Monday.

Slusser — along with former Spartan volleyball players Alyssa Sugai and Elle Patterson, San Jose State associate head coach Melissa Batie-Smoose, and eight players from four schools that have forfeited games against the Spartans over the player’s presence on the team — asked the court Nov. 15 for an emergency injunction. They had requested a court order banning the player from future games, including the championship, and that the conference’s policy allowing transgender players be rescinded. They also wanted Spartan wins that occurred via forfeit cancelled, plus a recalculation of conference standings based on those requested changes.

This news organization is not naming the transgender player, as they have not confirmed their status. Crews noted that no parties in the lawsuit dispute that a transgender woman is on the Spartan team.

The Spartan team over the weekend secured the No. 2 seed spot in the six-team tournament, with a bye in the first round. Then they are scheduled to face the winner of a match between Utah State and Boise State — two of the five teams that have forfeited against San Jose State.

Slusser and the others sued San Jose State officials, the conference and other defendants in Colorado federal court Nov. 13.

Slusser earlier joined a similar lawsuit, in Georgia federal court, against the National Collegiate Athletic Association over its rules allowing certain transgender women to play women’s sports.

Check back on this developing story.