Boise State Volleyball Players Explain SJSU Forfeit: 'Bigger Than A Championship' | EXCLUSIVE

LAS VEGAS – After the Boise State Broncos women's volleyball team defeated Utah State in the first round of the Mountain West Conference Tournament, it was faced with an impossible decision. 

The Broncos had to either play against San Jose State, a team with trans-identifying biological male player, Blaire Fleming, or forfeit for the third time against SJSU and give up their chance to reach the NCAA Tournament. 

Somewhat surprisingly, the team chose the latter. The program released a statement hours after the win over Utah State, saying they were withdrawing from the tournament. 

"The decision to not continue to play in the 2024 Mountain West Volleyball Championship tournament was not an easy one. Our team overcame forfeitures to earn a spot in the tournament field and fought for the win over Utah State in the first round on Wednesday," Boise State Athletics wrote in a statement. 

"They should not have to forgo this opportunity while waiting for a more thoughtful and better system that serves all athletes."

Immediately following the game, a team spokesperson told the media that he expected the team to play against San Jose State, though a decision hadn't been reached as of that moment. 

So, what changed?

OutKick spoke exclusively to Kiersten and Katelyn Van Kirk, sisters who both play on the Boise State volleyball team. 

"After that match [against Utah State], we knew that we had come to a decision as a whole department," Katelyn Van Kirk told OutKick. "I feel like it was kind of a lose-lose situation. And in the end, I guess we all had to come to terms with the idea that this is bigger than ourselves and a championship has to be given up for this fight [to protect women's sports] to actually keep going." 

The Van Kirks are two of 12 women currently suing the Mountain West Conference, alleging their Title IX and First Amendment rights were violated thanks to the conference's handling of the Blaire Fleming situation. 

"It's just disheartening and heartbreaking that it had to come to this," Kiersten Van Kirk said. "But I know that we are all working towards future generations being able to have a safe place for female athletes to compete and putting that above ourselves, which is a really hard thing to do because obviously our goal was to win a championship. And I think that it's extremely unfair and really terrible that it had to come to that." 

Boise State volleyball players Kiersten and Katelyn Van Kirk spoke to OutKick about the decision to forfeit their Mountain West Championship match against San Jose State, transgender Blaire Fleming.

(Boise State Athletics & Getty Images)

The Van Kirks said the team had a choice about whether to even play in the Mountain West Conference tournament, knowing they might have to face San Jose State and Fleming. But as a team, they wanted to at least give winning a championship a run. 

"We knew that there was definitely a possibility of playing San Jose, but we had decided beforehand… that we wanted to go to the tournament… and compete for a championship, which is something that we've worked all season for," Kiersten said. 

But, ultimately, winning a championship didn't mean as much to the women of the Boise State team as making an important stand about protecting women's sports. However, that doesn't mean it was an easy choice for them. 

"It was probably the hardest decision all of us, as student-athletes, will ever have to make in our entire playing career." Kiersten said. "We really tried to just talk about it and figure out that forfeiting that game was something that was going to hopefully have a bigger impact than us possibly having a championship or possibly being able to win a championship." 

The Boise State women have received overwhelmingly positive support since their courageous decision, the Van Kirks told OutKick. 

That includes support from the Governor of Idaho, Brad Little, and United States Senator Jim Risch (Idaho). 

"It is incredible to me that there is very, very minimal negative output at all. And the majority of people are saying that they are proud of us, and they're on our side," Kiersten said. "I think that goes to show that this is an issue that needs to be changed because we're not getting a lot of negative reactions from this." 

The Boise State women's volleyball team. 

(Boise State Athletics)

"I have personally seen no backlash or criticism on [the forfeit decision], which is really good," Katelyn added. "It gives me hope that there is a bright future to come on this issue. Seeing all the support has really shown that there are so many people that are on our side and that are trying to fight this fight for either their daughters or their future daughters… It shows that this topic was ultimately way bigger than just winning a championship." 

However, as Kiersten pointed out, if so many people support the idea of keeping biological males out of women's sports, why does it continue to happen across the country? 

"It's great to see all the support but, at the same time, it's also really frustrating because it's like you see all the support, and you're like, ‘yes, this is wrong, this needs to be changed,’ but then there's no change being made. And we had to give up a lot just for and for maybe possibly no change to still be made," she said. 

To that point, despite all the protesting, San Jose State and Blaire Fleming will compete for the Mountain West Championship on Saturday against top-seeded Colorado State. 

If the Spartans win Saturday's match, they advance to the NCAA Tournament. While we know exactly where each Mountain West team stands on this issue, we don't know how the rest of the women's volleyball teams across the country feel. 

Would other teams be willing to give up their shot to win an NCAA Championship to take a stand against biological males competing in women's sports like Boise State did? 

That is unclear, but we might soon find out.