Numerous figures, such as Nevada women’s volleyball team players and Riley Gaines, former NCAA swimmer turned political commentator, came together for the “Women’s Sports are for Women Only” rally. The event was hosted by the Independent Council on Women’s Sport (ICONS) at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center on Saturday, Oct. 26, at 1 p.m.
The event was held in response to the ongoing controversy regarding Blaire Fleming, an outside hitter for San Jose State who has been reported to be transgender. Since the report, four programs had forfeited their regular season matches against the Spartans, with the University of Nevada, Reno opting to continue with putting the match before it was moved to San Jose but the athletes on the team voting to forfeit the match.
The rally began with Gaines, who thanked the crowd and shared her personal story of swimming against a transgender athlete when she was a collegiate swimmer at Kentucky. Gaines has been part of an active lawsuit against the NCAA over allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports.
“Never would have imagined that you would give a standing ovation to a woman for merely saying men and women are different,” Gaines said.
As part of her opening statement, Gaines called out Charlie Baker, NCAA president, Gloria Nevarez, Mountain West commissioner, and leaders of the University of Nevada, Reno, to make change in women’s sports.
“Do the right thing,” Gaines said. “It’s not hard to do the right thing. Stop treating girls and women as an afterthought.”
Gaines then introduced nine players from the Nevada volleyball team, including Sia Liilii, Nevada co-captain. The other eight players were Kenna Dressel, Kinsley Singleton, Masyn Navarro, Sierra Bernard, Malia Pilimai, Bella Snyder, Nicanora Clarke, and Summer Suppik.
Liilii was the first player to speak and approached the podium with tears in her eyes as she received a standing ovation. Liilii was front and center when a majority of Nevada’s volleyball team voted to forfeit against San Jose State.
“I never expected to be blindsided, having to compete against a male athlete,” Liilii said. “When the news broke, I was stunned, as many of my teammates were. This is not what we signed up for.”
Lillii said the team was preparing for its match against UNLV on Oct. 3 when UNR released a statement committing to play against San Jose State. Liilii said the university didn’t reach out to the volleyball team before the statement, something that led to frustration for most of the team.
After that, the team approached UNR officials with their own statement regarding the match. Liilii said the university didn’t want to engage with what the team had to say, which led to the team releasing its statement to Outkick.com, a conservative news organization.
“They wouldn’t even hear it,” Liilii said. “We were told that we weren’t educated enough, and we didn’t understand the science. We were told to reconsider our position.”
Singleton was next to speak, who is currently a freshman at UNR. In her first colligate season, Singleton said she never expected to encounter this situation.
“It’s important that we take this opportunity to show that we won’t quietly accept being told that women’s sports has to be a place where women are sidelined,” Singleton said.
Singleton also noted that the team has spent countless hours discussing the consequences that forfeiting a match can have, which has caused a toll on their mental health.
Bernard and Navarro spoke next as both athletes took the podium together. They’re both from Northern Nevada, and Navarro said the two have played volleyball together for the past 10 years.
They both went to separate colleges during their freshman year, but both quickly entered the transfer portal and reunited at UNR. Navarro said they were both excited to return home, but it diminished when faced with the possibility of facing a transgender athlete.
“We should not have to be here advocating for women today,” Navarro said. “There are people who make sports rules and who lead the NCAA and Mountain West Conference, and they should never have let this happen.”
Navarro also allegedly said some of her teammates had been told to stay quiet about the controversy.
“It should not be this difficult to stand up for women,” Navarro said.” However, we will now take this opportunity to stand up as a team, as some of us have been told to stay quiet.”
Gaines returned to the podium to thank those on the volleyball team for having the courage to speak up for themselves. The team left the stage, and Marshi Smith, a four-time Nevada State and NCAA Champion swimmer, was the rally’s next speaker.
Smith is the co-founder of ICONS, which began after she saw Gaines share a championship trophy in 2022 with a transgender athlete.
Jen Hucke, a two-time Nevada State and Stanford University champion volleyball player, was the event’s next speaker. As a former volleyball player, Huck spoke to the Nevada team in the audience, saying she couldn’t imagine what they’ve had to go through.
“You are all faced with a decision that no woman should have to deal with,” Hucke said. “You’ve handled it with dignity and grace.”
Kendall Lewis, a Galena High School volleyball player, briefly spoke as well. She shared her story of having to face an alleged transgender athlete on an opposing team in the Washoe County School District.
Stavros Anthony, Nevada Lieutenant Governor, was the last guest speaker to appear on stage. Anthony said when the next legislative session begins in 2025, he will work with members of the Senate and Assembly to introduce legislation to protect women’s sports.
Anthony also said he will start a “fairness in women’s sports” committee during the next legislative session.
“We need to beat this like a drum every single day, and that’s what we’re going to do next year during the legislative session and get something passed,” Anthony said.
The rally ended once again with Gaines, as the Nevada volleyball team formed behind her in unity. In her closing statement, Gaines gave immense praise for what the Nevada volleyball team was doing and mentioned how all of this has taught her to be a voice.
Gaines also made it known that she does think transgender athletes should be allowed to play sports, but only with the sex they were born with.
“We’re not saying there’s not a place for these people to compete, of course there is,” Gaines said. “But compete in the category that is safe number one and fair number two, and that is the category that aligns with your sex.”
After the rally, Gaines told The Nevada Sagebrush that it was incredible to see the mass support system the Nevada volleyball team had earned. She said several teams have reached out to her, some of which haven’t spoken on the issue publicly, asking for support and advice.
“I’m just here to stand in solidarity, to show my support, to encourage them and to remind them, there’s so much more support out there than there are naysayers,” Gaines said. “Oftentimes, the naysayers are just louder but that’s not what we saw today.”
After getting emotional on stage, Liilii said after the rally that seeing everyone who came out to support made dealing with the controversy this past month even more hitting.
“It’s been emotional warfare for me and my teammates the past couple of months,” Liilii said. “I mean, being pulled in and out of meetings where we’re just baffled by what we’re being told has been insane. I signed up to be a student-athlete, so studying and pursuing education and playing the sport that I’m passionate about and love, and to be blindsided by something like this has just been insane.”
Although nine Nevada volleyball players showed up, it wasn’t the whole team. While it’s unclear exactly how many players don’t support the decision to forfeit, there wasn’t total agreement among the team.
“We are very unified as a team,” Liilii said. “We all understand that and respect each other. That’s the basis of it all. We’re sisters. Sisters don’t agree all the time, but at the same time, we still can get out on that court and get after it and love each other like sisters.”
Bella Snyder, one of the nine Nevada volleyball players who attended the rally, said that while the team has had several meetings about it, it all gets put aside when it’s time to play.
“As soon as the conversation is over, we walk out of the room and we’re all back to our common goal, which is playing volleyball,” Snyder said. “We’ve never held anything against any one of our teammates for feeling any differently. Everybody has their opinions, and it’s at the end of the day, it’s okay for everyone. And we made sure that, ‘Hey, we still leave this room. We still love you, we are still gonna play together.'”
The volleyball players weren’t the only athletes from Nevada to show up to the event in support.
Ally Larkin, Nevada women’s soccer player, showed up to the event in full support of the volleyball team. Larkin also believes that transgender women shouldn’t be allowed to participate in women’s sports, and the silence from several school and sports leaders is concerning.
“The fact that they remain silent and are just letting this happen is absolutely astonishing to me, and it’s cowardice,” Larkin said. “I think that we need to get people to realize that there is a clear difference between men and women, and there is a difference. That’s why there’s a different category for sports. And so I have been infuriated just watching even the leaders of the NCAA and the Mountain West stay silent during this it’s been truly disgusting to watch as someone who has been born a female and watched males step in and try and take scholarships And roster spots away from women.”
As a fellow Nevada athlete, Larkin said that seeing the volleyball team use its voice and stand up for something was empowering, especially against UNR leaders, who she said haven’t given the same support system.
“I’m so incredibly proud of each and every one of them that showed up today to just share their voice and to speak up against, again, the injustice and the unfairness that is happening towards women’s and female athletics, really emphasizing the female part,” Larkin said. “I’m just very proud that they took a stand in that, even though the president of our university and the athletic director of our university have not been on our side, and they have not been standing up for us the way leadership should do.”
Although the Oct. 26 match was the only scheduled match between Nevada and San Jose State this season, the two teams could still potentially face each other in the Mountain West Tournament, which starts Nov. 27.
Snyder said the team has been taking it one match at a time, focusing on making the conference tournament. If it comes to facing the Spartans, that conversation will happen if that bridge is crossed.
“That’s another conversation that we’ll have because obviously there’s a lot more at stake than just a conference game lost,” Snyder said. “But we still stand by the message that we sent with taking the L in the situation, and if it comes to that, then we’ll talk about it as a team and still leave the end of the day united.”
Liilii agreed and hopes the conference will see that Nevada isn’t the only Mountain West school to feel this way.
“I hope that the Mountain West sees that four of their schools have made it clear that we do not feel safe,” Liilii said. “We do not feel comfortable and that they’ll act upon it.”
Gaines hopes that every team that has forfeited so far will stand their ground, regardless of whether it’s in tournament play or not.
“I urge these girls to hold the line,” Gaines said. “And while urging these girls to continue doing that, I urge the Mountain West Conference to do the right thing. Again, it’s really not hard. It’s often labeled as this is a complicated issue, it’s not. It’s the most simple issue, yet, we were wasting time and resources, and all kinds of things on it. It’s simple. Men compete with men, women compete with women. End of story.”
Nevada’s volleyball team is currently 11-11 and 4-6 in conference play after the forfeit. The team’s next match is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 29, in Logan, Utah, to face Utah State.
Dominic Gutierrez can be reached via email dominicgutierrez@unr.edu or via X @d_m_g_16
