The hot war over trans—men pretending to be women—players in college volleyball ended when the season ended but as I recently noted, the lawsuits go on. One of the pieces of evidence that will surely come up in those suits is the unconscionable pressure exerted on genuinely female volleyball players to praise college administrator’s and the NCAA’s pro-trans stance, or at least to shut up and take warp speed spikes to their faces like a man. What happened to the girls at San Jose State University was representative of what’s happening to female collegiate athletes around the nation:

Graphic: Fox News Screenshot

"University administrators met with the Nevada [UNR] volleyball team and discussed scenarios of what could happen if they chose not to play. One of the scenarios that was discussed revolved around possible legal issues for violating the Nevada Constitution," read a statement that was provided exclusively to Fox News Digital by the University of Nevada, Reno. 

The state's constitution was revised in 2022, when Democrat lawmakers voted to adopt the Equal Rights Amendment, which added gender identity to its list of diversity classifications that are protected under state law. 

College athletes, particularly those on scholarship, are uniquely vulnerable to their coaches and administrators, who can withdraw their scholarships, and through coaches’ and administrator’s grapevines, poison other schools against disfavored athletes. Losing a scholarship in the middle of a season effectively kills an athlete’s chance to play that year as other schools have already filled their rosters.

[Independent Council on Women's Sports (ICONS) co-founder Marshi] Smith met and spoke with multiple players on the Nevada team during their dispute, and heads the legal advocacy group that has brought a lawsuit against San Jose State and the Mountain West conference for its handling of the situation involving the trans athlete. 

"At UNR, school administrators warned athletes they could face legal action if they refused to compete against SJSU’s team, which included a male starter," Smith told Fox News Digital. 

Athletes can never be certain if that kind of threat, which would surely expose any college to overwhelmingly bad publicity, is a bluff. Such action against athletes would be subject to reversal for violation of their First Amendment free speech rights.

An October match between SJSU and Nevada was first moved, and then forfeited when Nevada athletes refused to play, giving SJSU and its trans player another win. Nevada players held a press conference Oct. 26:

[UNR team captain Sia] Liilii broke down in tears from the minute she took the podium while she recounted her experience telling school officials she didn't want to compete against a transgender player.

"We felt unsafe and dismissed," Liilii said, sobbing. "We met with our school officials to give them our team's new statement, but they wouldn't even hear it. We were told that we weren't educated enough and that we didn't understand the science. We were told to reconsider our position." 

Nevada sophomore Masyn Navarro alleged her teammates had been told to "stay quiet" about the controversy during the press conference. 

"It should not be this difficult to stand up for women. However, we will now take this opportunity to stand up as a team, as some of us have been told to stay quiet," Navarro said. 

School authorities claimed no such thing happened, but admitted apologizing for saying the match would be played when they knew the athletes refused to play.

But Liilii is now one of 11 former or current Mountain West volleyball players engaged in the lawsuit against San Jose State and the Mountain West for its handling of the situation involving the trans athlete. 

San Jose State co-captain Brooke Slusser leads the suit and is engaged in a separate lawsuit against the NCAA citing her experience of having to share a team, bedroom and changing spaces with the trans athlete while knowledge of the player's birth sex was actively withheld from her for an entire season by the school and conference.

Former SJSU Assistant volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose, who was suspended by San Jose State after filing a Title IX complaint alleging the university gave favorable treatment toward the trans player, is also a plaintiff. 

The issue of “trans rights” is gaslighting. Trans have the same rights as anyone else. What they and their supporters demand is additional, extra-constitutional “rights” that override not only the actual rights of others, but reality. They demand not only that everyone else shut up and submit to their desires, but universal praise for their brilliance and bravery.

In athletics they demand the overturning of the foundation of sport: a level playing field. Title IX ensures genuinely female athletes have the same opportunities as male athletes. It does not give mediocre male athletes the right to declare themselves female and vault to the medal stand all the while claiming there are no differences between men and women.

One hopes Liilii, Slusser, Batie-Smoose, every other female athlete, and sanity, prevail.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.