EXCLUSIVE: In October, players on the University of Nevada Reno women’s volleyball team became involved in a highly publicized dispute with their university and its athletic department over whether they should play a match against San Jose State University.
San Jose State, at the time, enrolled a trans athlete.
Nevada players approached university administrators privately to express their desire to forfeit the game and join four other programs that refused to play at SJSU. But Nevada did not honor that request and instead issued a statement insisting it would play the game. Nevada also insisted that its players would be allowed to miss the contest without facing disciplinary action.
The team finally lost the day before the match was scheduled due to not having enough players. However, the university has said it had conversations with players about possible “legal issues” that would arise if the game was not played.
“University administrators met with the Nevada volleyball team and discussed scenarios of what could happen if they decided not to play. One of the scenarios that was discussed revolved around possible legal issues for violating the Nevada Constitution,” reads a statement provided exclusively to Pak Gazette Digital from the University of Nevada, Reno.
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The state constitution was revised in 2022, when Democratic lawmakers voted to adopt the Equal Rights Amendment, which added gender identity to its list of diversity classifications protected by state law.
“Laws and regulations prohibited the University of Nevada from resigning for reasons related to gender identity or expression. “As a state university, a seizure for reasons related to gender identity or expression could constitute discrimination per se and violate the Nevada Constitution,” Nevada’s statement reads.
Nevada’s statement was in response to allegations made by Independent Council for Women’s Sports (ICONS) co-founder Marshi Smith.
Smith met and spoke with several players on the Nevada team during the dispute and is leading the legal advocacy group that filed a lawsuit against San Jose State and the Mountain West Conference for their handling of the situation involving the trans athlete.
“At UNR, school administrators warned athletes that they could face legal action if they refused to compete against the SJSU team, which included a male starter,” Smith told Pak Gazette Digital.
The dispute between the players became a national controversy that even attracted mainstream political attention in the weeks leading up to the November election.
Nevada players, including captain Sia Liilii, spoke publicly against the university on multiple occasions for its refusal to forfeit the game. Trump’s presumptive Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard and former Nevada Senate candidate Sam Brown even visited the team for a photo op and interview.
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The scale of the controversy only increased as the October 26 match date approached. On October 22, Nevada and San Jose State announced that the game would move from the Nevada campus in Reno to the San Jose State campus in the California Bay Area, claiming that the location change was “in the best interest of both programs and the good”. -be of the student-athletes, coaches, sports staff and spectators.”
But then, the day before the game, Nevada announced that its team would withdraw, citing the fact that it did not have enough players willing to participate. Nevada suffered a record loss in the game, then finished just 1-7 to end the season.
Nevada players previously spoke about the pressure they faced from the university to play the game at a news conference at their university. It took place on the day of the originally scheduled match, October 26.
Liilii burst into tears from the moment she took the podium as she recounted her experience telling school officials that she did not want to compete against a transgender player.
“We felt insecure and fired,” Liilii said, sobbing. “We met with our school officials to give them our team’s new statement, but they didn’t even want to hear it. They told us we weren’t educated enough and didn’t understand the science. They told us to reconsider our position.”
Nevada sophomore Masyn Navarro alleged that her teammates had been told to “stay quiet” about the controversy during the press conference.
“It shouldn’t be so difficult to defend women. However, now we will take this opportunity to defend ourselves as a team, since some of us have been told to stay silent,” Navarro said.
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Nevada athletic director Stephanie Rempe previously provided a statement to Pak Gazette Digital addressing the allegations that were made at the press conference.
“I did not say, and I am not aware of, any member of the athletics administrative team telling members of our women’s volleyball team that they ‘were not educated enough,’ that they ‘didn’t understand the science,’ that they should reconsider their position.” or that they should ‘remain silent’ regarding their participation in a scheduled Oct. 26 game against San Jose State University.”
Rempe said he had offered an apology to the players for how they were informed that the university planned to continue with the game, even after the players voted to leave.
“On October 14 and 22, I spoke to the team for less than five minutes each time and those meetings were operational in nature. In all three meetings, I shared our genuine apology for not sharing the statement released on October 3 before their match against UNLV As has been stated on multiple occasions, we continue to support the rights of volleyball players who choose and choose not to participate,” Rempe said.
Article I, Section 24 of the Nevada Constitution states that “This state or any of its political subdivisions shall not deny or abridge equal rights under the law on the basis of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry or national origin.”
But Liilii is now one of 11 former or current Mountain West volleyball players involved in the lawsuit against San Jose State and the Mountain West over their handling of the situation involving the trans athlete.
San Jose State co-captain Brooke Slusser is leading the lawsuit and is involved in a separate lawsuit against the NCAA citing her experience of having to share a team, dorm and locker room with the trans athlete while actively hiding knowledge of the player’s birth sex. her for an entire season around school and conference.
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The other players on the list of plaintiffs are Alyssa Sugai, Elle Patterson, Nicanora Clarke, Kaylie Ray, Macey Boggs, Sierra Grizzle, Jordan Sandy, Katelyn Van Kirk and Kiersten Van Kirk. Former SJSU assistant volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose, who was suspended by San Jose State after filing a Title IX complaint alleging that the university gave favorable treatment to the trans player, is also a plaintiff.
Smith told Pak Gazette Digital that some athletes have expressed fear of retaliation from their schools when deciding whether or not to seek their help.
“The first most common question we hear from NCAA female athletes seeking support is: ‘What can my school or the NCAA do to retaliate against me if I speak out against allowing men to participate in women’s sports?’ They are often terrified of losing scholarships or being kicked off their teams,” Smith told Pak Gazette Digital.
“The first assurance we provide is that these athletes have a constitutional right to free speech. They can speak out or resign in protest against discrimination, violations of Title IX, or increased safety risks when competing against a male athlete, without fear to retaliation, regardless of the lies their schools may tell them.”
