Brooke Slusser criticizes San Jose State’s decision to suspend assistant coach after filing a Title IX complaint regarding a transgender teammate.

Melissa Batie-Smoose was suspended Saturday, less than two hours before the team’s match against New Mexico, after she filed a Title IX complaint earlier that week.

The San Jose State women’s volleyball team won a match Saturday without its associate head coach on the sideline after she reportedly filed a complaint about how the team had handled having a transgender player on its roster.

The San Jose State University women’s volleyball team finds itself at the center of a storm around transgender participation in sports as it makes a run toward a conference title.

San José State University (SJSU) is at the centre of a row about one of its women’s volleyball players. The inclusion of the allegedly trans athlete has left a number of other universities refusing to play “The Spartans” National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) matches.

After reports that the team includes a transgender player, several schools have forfeited matches against the university out of protest.

A San Jose State University women’s volleyball assistant coach has left the team after reportedly filing a Title IX complaint about the squad’s male-to-female transgender player.

The vast majority of our team decided this is something we wanted to take a stand on,” Liilii told the website. “We didn’t want to play against a male player.”