As San Jose State University approaches a critical deadline in its Title IX conflict against President Donald Trump's administration, another woman who was affected by the school's 2024 volleyball scandal has come forward.
Former University of Wyoming volleyball star Macey Boggs said her team had been "torn apart" over a decision of whether to forfeit two matches to SJSU in 2024. The Spartans were embroiled in a national controversy at that time due to the presence of a biological male transgender athlete on the roster.
Boggs said in a recent interview the players had found out about the trans player, whom they had competed against two years earlier, in the spring of 2024. When the fall rolled around, the locker room became a hive of tension and nerves due to the two scheduled matches between Wyoming and SJSU, and disagreements about whether to forfeit or not.
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"You could tell that things got a little bit hostile," Boggs told Fox News Digital.
"In between the whispering between each other's back, and then we were no longer one team, one unit, it was like these two separate islands."
Friendships were permanently ruined for Boggs and the rest of the Cowgirls, she said.
"Yeah," Boggs said when asked if the situation "permanently ruined friendships."
"There were some of the girls who I really enjoyed, and we got along great, and then this situation came up, some conflict came up, and ultimately we went in separate directions because of that … as soon as we played in our last game, we all went in separate directions… it was hard to maintain those relationships."
The first Mountain West team to forfeit to SJSU that year was Utah State, becoming the first of five conference teams to do so.
Former Utah State star Kaylie Ray previously told Fox News Digital that the decision was left up to a player poll, and the majority of players voted to forfeit.
Wyoming also left the decision up to a player vote, per Boggs. But that vote had troubling outcome for her.
"It was said that it was up to the players. So we took an anonymous vote, it ended up we were going to play because most of the girls on my team wanted to play," Boggs said. But she and others weren't going to play anyway, regardless of the vote.
"There were a few of us who were like, ‘We’re not gonna play.' So we decided we're not gonna play. . . . There was a lot of conflict within the team . . . and it was not something you should have to deal with on your team. . . . It just seems so silly and something that tore apart the team."
The divide came with several difficult conversations for Boggs.
But most of the conversations weren't necessarily ideological, over whether males should be able to play in women's sports. Boggs said the conversations were mostly about the pain of taking two losses on their record, when they were all working so hard to make the playoffs.
It was especially hard for the seniors.
"One of the hardest conversations, there were two, one of them was a fellow senior and she said, ‘This is my fellow senior year, I don’t want it to be ruined by this. And I fully resonated with that because it was also my senior year, and it was ruined by that," Boggs said.
"One girl was doing really well statistically in the Mountain West and the NCAA and she mentioned, ‘how is this going to affect my stats?’ And that didn't settle well for me because I was like, ‘OK, that’s kind of selfish.'
"I understood where she was coming from … but ultimately it's a bigger issue."
Boggs and the players who were determined not to play the game were preparing to tell the coaches of their intent.
But just then, prior to the first match between Wyoming and SJSU on Oct. 5 of that year, the players were called into another meeting, Boggs said.
Boggs claims that Wyoming Athletic Director Tom Burman told them they were encouraged by the Wyoming state government to forfeit the game, but Burman made the final decision on the forfeit
"By the time it was time to tell the coaches, we had another meeting… It was told to us by our AD Tom Burman, so he was the one who said, ‘this is the decision that has been made, it’s been taken out of your guys' hands. And I'm so grateful for that," Boggs said.
Fox News Digital has reached out to University of Wyoming Athletics and Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon's office for a response.
Public records show the university faced "outside pressure" to forfeit the match, according to WyoFile.
Gordon commended the forfeit in a statement at the time.
"I am in full support of the decision by Wyoming Athletics to forego playing its volleyball match against San Jose State. It is important we stand for integrity and fairness in female athletics," Gordon said.
Wyoming went on to finish the season 17-13, losing six of their last nine games. They finished two games out of the final spot in the conference tournament, and would have made the tournament had they won their two games against SJSU. It was Boggs and other seniors' last chance to make the tournament in their Wyoming careers.
Within the locker room, the disagreements over initial vote left rifts. Boggs and the women on her side dug their heels in deeper.
In November of that year, Boggs and teammates Sierra Grizzle and Jordan Sandy joined former SJSU volleyball star Brooke Slusser's lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference. Slusser initially brought the scandal into the national spotlight that September, when she joined Riley Gaines' lawsuit against the NCAA, with Slusser citing her experience playing with and rooming with trans teammate Blaire Fleming without ever being officially told of Fleming's birth sex.
Boggs, Grizzle and Sandy joined Slusser and seven other conference players in suing the Mountain West and representative of SJSU and the California State University (CSU) system.
Boggs said the decision to take things that far earned the respect of teammates who initially voted to play the game.
Once they joined, Boggs said she told her other teammates, "'Hey, can we talk to you guys? We've decided to join this lawsuit, and this is why."
"And after that, they like totally understood . . . I think that standing up for something can be extremely scary, and something you need to be very brave and bold in."
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The Slusser v Mountain West lawsuit was partially dismissed by federal judge Kato Crews earlier in March, with all charges being dismissed against the Mountain West.
However, Title IX claims and representatives of SJSU and CSU were not dismissed. Crews is reserving a ruling on those charges until after the ruling in the ongoing B.P.J. v West Virginia Supreme Court case over trans athletes in women's sports, and the Title IX implications.
At the same time, SJSU and CSU are waging a legal war of resistance to the Trump administration's efforts to get SJSU to resolve its alleged Title IX violations for how it handled Fleming.
After the U.S. Department of Education announced an investigation determined that SJSU violated Title IX, and offered a series of compliance points to resolve it, SJSU and CSU sued the federal government to challenge the findings.
"I laughed," Boggs said, when she heard the news of SJSU's lawsuit. "That seems like something that is a little bit silly. I truly believe that we even shouldn't be having lawsuits centered around men in women's sports."
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon responded to the lawsuits on March 11, giving the institutions a deadline of 10 days to come to an agreement or risk federal funding cuts and a referral to the U.S. Department of Justice.
With that deadline coming up within a week, Boggs is the latest woman to have been impacted by the scandal to speak out about the experience, joining Slusser and Ray.
Both Slusser and Ray have gone viral on social media in recent weeks after speaking out, prompting criticism and even online insults from people with pro-transgender views.
Boggs said she's faced online attacks from the other side ever since her decision to forfeit and join the lawsuit in 2024, and she is prepared to face more, if necessary.
"I will bare the weight all day, I will take any hate that has to come, because I truly believe in this. If you have to say these crazy things, I would rather you say them to me than those girls that I am fighting with."
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