Championship volleyball game featuring transgender player opens with players kneeling during national anthem
The Mountain West volleyball tournament final Saturday pits San Jose State and transgender player Blaire Fleming against Colorado State and its star, Malaya Jones.
Fleming has been the subject of controversy, with two lawsuits objecting to Fleming's presence on the team as a transgender athlete. But Jones and her teammates introduced some controversy of their own.
Jones and teammates Kennedy Stanford and Naeemah Weathers knelt during the national anthem ahead of Saturday's match for the second night in a row.
The three players also knelt during the national anthem ahead of a semifinal match Friday night.
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After Friday's game, Colorado State head coach Emily Kohan told reporters the players have knelt before games for five seasons.
"They've knelt since their freshman year, when the Black Lives Matter movement was going on, and, in this program, we raise critical thinkers to make decisions for what's important to them," Kohan said. "And, for those three, they're Black players, and it's been important to them for five years. And they've stood their ground for saying that this is something that they believe in, and we've all supported them."
Questions arose whether the Spartans would even play Saturday's match after their semifinal opponent, Boise State, forfeited a playoff match amid the controversy. But Kohan insisted her team would play the game with Fleming on the court.
"This has been far from a regular season. We get an opportunity to play for another championship tomorrow, but we also are showing some courage to be the team that says, ‘Hey, we’re going to go out there, and we’re gonna show courage in the way we play and that this can stop with us.’
"We're not going to pass these difficult conversations on to the NCAA committee or any other team to have those crying conversations in the hotel."
Colorado State has been the best team in the conference this season, and San Jose State finished second. In their first match of the regular season Oct. 3, Spartans head coach Todd Kress thanked Kohan and her team for simply participating.
At the time, San Jose State had just had three matches wiped off its schedule due to forfeit over the Fleming controversy.
"I walked up to Emily tonight, and I was like, ‘Should I say thank you for playing us?’ I seriously meant that because, of course, we're disappointed that we're losing opportunities to play, but it's not just us that are losing opportunities to play. It's the people choosing not to play us, and that's very unfortunate when it comes to these young women that have earned the right to step on the court and play," Kress said in a postgame press conference Oct. 3.
Fleming's San Jose State teammate Brooke Slusser is involved in two separate lawsuits, citing her experience with Fleming as a teammate. Slusser has alleged she was made to share living and changing areas with Fleming despite having never been told Fleming is a biological male.
Slusser's most recent lawsuit against the Mountain West alleges another San Jose State teammate was present for a meeting between Fleming and Jones in which they discussed a plan to throw the Oct. 3 match in favor of the Rams, while also planning to have Slusser spiked in the face by Jones. Those same allegations were included in a Title IX complaint by former Spartans assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose.
The Mountain West has concluded an investigation into the allegations of the Title IX complaint without finding sufficient evidence to support the claims. Slusser's attorney provided a statement to Fox News Digital questioning the validity of the investigation.
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