Draw the curtain.
San Jose State volleyball player Blaire Fleming probably played the final college volleyball game of the athlete’s career after a Mountain West Tournament final loss to Colorado State Saturday night.
Fleming led the Spartans on a run to the championship match in a senior season overshadowed by lawsuits from a teammate and a national controversy over Fleming being transgender.
Fleming led the team in spikes and prompted four Mountain West rivals to forfeit a total of seven conference games, including a tournament semifinal.
But Colorado State never shied away from playing Fleming or the Spartans.
The Rams played San Jose two times in the regular season, splitting the season series, and then taking the championship match three sets to one.
Colorado State’s Malaya Jones, the Mountain West player of the year, led the game with 26 kills after kneeling during the national anthem before the match.
Jones was also alleged to have conspired with Fleming in a plan to spike a ball in the face of San Jose State teammate Brooke Slusser in a game Oct. 3, according to a lawsuit filed by Slusser and a Title IX complaint.
Slusser was never spiked in the face, and the Mountain West concluded an investigation into the Title IX complaint, saying it did not find sufficient evidence of wrongdoing. Slusser’s attorney has questioned the validity of the investigation.
Fleming, meanwhile, led San Jose State in the game with 17 kills but committed nine errors and hit poorly in the first two sets when the Spartans fell in a two-sets-to-none hole.
San Jose State’s loss will also mean it won’t advance to the NCAA tournament, which would have introduced further controversy with potential matchups against teams outside the conference.
Boise State forfeited its Mountain West Tournament semifinal match against San Jose State, which could have set a precedent for teams in other states with laws that prevent transgender inclusion in women’s sports.
Boise State, Utah State, Wyoming, Nevada and non-conference opponent Southern Utah all forfeited regular-season matches against San Jose State this season amid the controversy.
Meanwhile, Louisiana Tech, which played its season opener against San Jose State Aug. 30, has told Fox News Digital it did not know Fleming was a biological male and suggested the match wouldn’t have happened if the team had known.
The situation became so widely publicized, Fleming’s presence on the team drew criticism from President-elect Trump on the campaign trail during the most recent election cycle.
Trump weighed in on the situation involving Fleming during a town hall event on Fox News Channel’s “The Faulkner Focus” Oct. 17.
Trump referenced Fleming specifically, describing a video in which one of the athlete’s spikes hit another player.
“I saw the slam. It was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump said. “But other people, even in volleyball, they’ve been permanently, I mean, they’ve been really hurt badly. Women playing men. But you don’t have to do the volleyball. We stop it. We stop it. We absolutely stop it. You can’t have it.”
Trump revealed his intention to ban transgender inclusion in women’s sports if elected. It became a talking point he made sure to reference at every campaign rally from then until Election Day.
He and Republican allies hammered Democrats’ position of protecting transgender inclusion, which grew increasingly unpopular.
A federal judge could have ended Fleming’s career earlier but decided to allow the player to compete in the conference tournament.
Federal Judge Kato Crews of Colorado, appointed by President Biden in January, denied a motion for injunctive relief in a lawsuit by college volleyball players against the conference.
The players were looking to have their forfeits for refusing to play against Fleming and the Spartans rescinded, which would, in turn, shift the standings heading into the tournament. They also wanted Fleming banned from the tournament.
Crews, however, wrote that the plaintiffs’ request for an emergency delay “was not reasonable” and “would risk confusion and upend months of planning and would prejudice, at a minimum, (San Jose State) and other teams participating in the tournament.”
Despite the lawsuits, Slusser and the rest of the San Jose State roster took the court with Fleming for matches all season.
Fleming was second in the conference in kills per set with a .386, still well behind Jones, who led the way at .457.
Fleming had a signature moment in the second-to-last match of the season against first-place Colorado State at home on Senior Day.
Fleming led the game in kills with 24 and total attacks and clinched victory in the fifth set with a match-point service ace.
Right after the play, Fleming was swarmed by teammates in celebration. Even Slusser got involved. This group celebration took place just days after Slusser and other Mountain West players filed a second lawsuit over Fleming’s presence on the team against San Jose State and the conference.
Now, Fleming, Slusser and their other senior teammates will look ahead to their post-volleyball lives.
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