On the volleyball court, the San Jose State University Spartans look like any other college women’s team. In their blue and gold uniforms, they move fluidly around the court—setting, spiking, and blocking shots with precision, leaping through the air like pogo sticks during each play.

Off the court, however, the team is grappling with unexpected tensions, confusion, and emotional turmoil. They are at the center of a heated national debate over a sensitive issue: whether a transgender woman should be allowed to compete on a women’s sports team.

It all began in April when a conservative website revealed that one of the Spartans players was transgender, surprising some of her teammates.

This month, a senior co-captain and the assistant coach filed a lawsuit to prevent the transgender athlete from participating in the Mountain West Conference tournament, claiming that allowing her to play violated Title IX’s protections for gender equity in federally funded institutions.

The lawsuit, supported by a group of 10 female volleyball players—many from teams that compete against the Spartans—targeted San Jose State’s head coach, two university administrators, the Mountain West Conference, and the California State University board of trustees. Their aim was to have the player removed from the tournament and, by extension, from women’s college sports altogether.

Meanwhile, the transgender athlete has kept silent. Other teammates, aside from Brooke Slusser, the co-captain leading the lawsuit, have also declined to comment. The New York Times is withholding the player’s name, as she has not publicly confirmed her identity and declined an interview request through the university’s spokesperson.

“We just don’t think it’s fair that a man is allowed to play,” Slusser said in an interview last week, referring to her transgender teammate. She acknowledged that filing the lawsuit was a difficult decision because she didn’t want to add more strain to her teammates. “But then I also imagined myself having kids and seeing them play against a man or on a team with a man. Knowing I had the opportunity to make a change, I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t.”

As a result of the controversy, some Spartans no longer communicate with one another, either during practice or outside of games. Head coach Todd Kress, who supports the transgender athlete’s right to play, has stopped speaking with certain players off the court. Fans, too, have divided, with some supporting the transgender player and others opposing her involvement. In response, campus police were called in to manage potential disruptions during the past few weeks.

Kress, who has been at San Jose State for two years, said the situation has taken a significant emotional toll on many players. “I think they are good people at heart, but they’ve been caught up in a very challenging and unique situation,” he said.

A federal judge recently dismissed the lawsuit, allowing the transgender athlete to continue competing in the Mountain West Conference tournament. Another judge rejected the plaintiffs’ appeal shortly after.

Despite a first-round bye, the Spartans were preparing for a semifinal match on Friday, but Boise State University, the opposing team, refused for the third time this season to play against them due to the presence of the transgender player. Four other teams had forfeited games against San Jose State in protest.

In a statement, Boise State said the decision was not easy but emphasized that the team “should not have to forgo this opportunity while waiting for a better system that serves all athletes.”

San Jose State expressed disappointment in Boise State’s decision, adding that the team was preparing for the next match and looking forward to competing for the championship.

With one win—or one more boycotted game—the Spartans will move on to the N.C.A.A. tournament, where they will face even greater scrutiny.

“There have been a lot of people in the community who have supported the athlete, regardless of her identity, because she’s being unfairly targeted,” said Bonnie Sugiyama, director of the Pride Center and Gender Equity Center at San Jose State. “Can you imagine the pressure of being in the national spotlight, even being mentioned in a presidential campaign, when all you’re doing is playing a game and following the rules?”

The Debate Over Fairness

In sports, men’s and women’s categories exist because of the biological advantages that typically make men faster and stronger. These distinctions aim to ensure fairness, offering women an equal chance to succeed. While these advantages are minimal before puberty, they become more pronounced during puberty due to the rise in testosterone levels in males.

Balancing fairness in women’s sports while being inclusive of transgender athletes has become an ongoing struggle for sports organizations. There is no foolproof method to ensure that transgender women do not retain a competitive advantage over cisgender women, and the debate continues about whether suppressing testosterone for a period before competing can mitigate this advantage. Testosterone is the hormone linked to muscle mass, strength, and endurance.

The NCAA has left it to each sport’s governing body to decide the eligibility criteria for transgender athletes.

USA Volleyball, for example, requires that transgender athletes document hormone therapy to compete in the women’s category, citing concerns over testosterone potentially providing an “unfair competitive advantage.” The NCAA allows trans volleyball players to compete if their testosterone levels are under 10 nanomoles per liter—a figure that exceeds the upper limit for non-transgender women but falls within the typical range for men.

The political implications of this issue have grown, with some lawmakers, including President-elect Donald Trump and other conservative politicians, vocally opposing transgender women competing in women’s sports.

Republican governors in Wyoming, Nevada, Idaho, and Utah have publicly backed their states’ teams that forfeited games against San Jose State. Some even wore “BOY-cott” T-shirts at a Utah State volleyball game.

Kevin O’Sullivan, a retired firefighter from Pleasanton, California, whose daughter plays for the Spartans, expressed frustration that the situation has become politicized. “The rules are allowing it, and I’ve told my daughter, ‘Can the team just move on and try to win?’” he said, adding that he feels empathy for the transgender player. “She’s a human, and we’re not going to be part of a mob mentality and march down to city hall and burn her at the stake. I feel like that’s what this is turning into.”

For Slusser, the co-captain at the heart of the lawsuit, this issue feels like “God’s plan.” She admitted that she initially didn’t know her teammate was transgender, even when they roomed together for away games. They had been good friends. But when the article about her teammate’s gender identity was published, Slusser felt betrayed. “I truly don’t care how you want to live your life,” she said, “but a trans woman shouldn’t be sharing a locker room with female teammates or rooming with them.”

Earlier this year, Slusser also joined a federal lawsuit against the NCAA, filed by a group of female athletes, challenging the inclusion of transgender athletes like swimmer Lia Thomas, who competed in the 2022 NCAA swimming championships.

Fairness and Safety

Bill Bock, a lawyer involved in that case, encouraged Slusser to file her lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference. Bock has a background in sports law and previously helped expose cyclist Lance Armstrong’s doping scandal.

Bock argued that fairness in sports is critical to the essence of Title IX, which protects against gender discrimination. “If you don’t have a fair game, then the sport is meaningless,” he said. “The NCAA and college administrators have failed women by neglecting their duty to ensure fairness and safety in sports.”

When assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose arrived at San Jose State nearly two years ago, she was unaware of the transgender player’s identity. However, after watching the player perform in beach volleyball, she remarked to Kress that the player hit and blocked “like a dude” because of her impressive height and jumping ability. Later, Batie-Smoose learned the player was transgender and said that she would not have taken the job had she known.

Batie-Smoose later filed a Title IX complaint against the university, alleging that it had shown favoritism toward the transgender athlete and had attempted to silence her. The university suspended Batie-Smoose earlier this month for speaking out.

Amid all this controversy, Kress expressed pride in his team’s resilience. “This could have broken us, but it didn’t,” he said after the Spartans’ last regular-season match.

As the season comes to a close, players like Slusser continue to navigate this complex, divisive issue. For some, the outcome of this debate will have lasting implications far beyond the volleyball court.