Influential losses?

Two high school girls’ volleyball teams with rosters that included boys who self-identify as “transgender” lost in their respective states’ postseasons this fall.

One is Skyline High in Ann Arbor, Mich., which reached the quarterfinals of Michigan’s state tournament before getting knocked out in a three-set loss to Byron Center. The other is California’s Jurupa Valley High, which dropped its first playoff match—also in three sets—and was likewise eliminated from state title contention.

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral argument in mid-January concerning the constitutionality of Idaho and West Virginia laws that, those states claim, aim to ensure fairness and safety in girls’ and women’s sports by excluding trans-identifying male athletes. This begs the question: Do the defeats handed to Skyline and Jurupa Valley undermine the argument that letting boys play on girls’ teams gives those teams an unfair advantage?

Macy Petty, a legislative strategist with Concerned Women for America, and Hal Frampton, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) who handles women’s sports cases, don’t think so. In fact, Petty thinks those who focus on the fact that all-girl teams have beaten teams with boys are missing the point.

“It isn’t just about wins and losses. It’s about dignity and safety,” said Petty, who played college volleyball at Lee University, a Christian school in Tennessee. “Just because a male athlete didn’t win a state championship doesn’t mean an injustice didn’t occur. Every time he stepped on the court, he denied women fairness and safety on both their team and opposing teams.”

Boys inflict dignitary harm on girls by denying them the chance to shine in their own sports, Petty said. Regarding safety, boys endanger female teammates and opponents because, on average, they are taller and stronger, run faster, jump higher, and spike balls harder.

“In men’s volleyball, the net is 7 inches higher for all those reasons,” Petty said. “Every time a male athlete touches the floor [in a girls’ match], he faces a net 7 inches shorter than he should.”

And even if putting a boy on the court doesn’t guarantee a win, it still increases a girls’ team’s probability of victory, according to Frampton.

“Their hitting velocity is not the only advantage at play,” the ADF attorney said. “Their height, limb length, and jumping power give them an advantage at nearly every position.”

Skyline has reportedly taken pains to conceal its male player’s identity, likely to comply with a federal law protecting student privacy. The identity of Jurupa Valley’s trans-identifying player, however, is no secret: It’s senior A.B. Hernandez, who won California state track-and-field titles in the high jump and triple jump back in May.

Jurupa Valley finished its season 19-12 after falling to Valencia of Placentia in the opening round of California’s Southern Section playoffs. Eight of Jurupa Valley’s wins, however, came by forfeit. In fact, under section rules, Jurupa would have missed the postseason but for those forfeits.

Something similar happened at the college level last season: San Jose State University, whose roster included male outside hitter Blaire (née Brayden) Fleming, finished 14-7 and reached its conference tournament’s championship match before falling to Colorado State. However, half the Spartans’ triumphs came by forfeit, with three coming from Boise State.

On the high school sports website MaxPreps.com, Jurupa Valley’s roster lists Hernandez as a hitter, meaning his job was typically to spike the ball to score points. However, two sources involved with Valencia High’s program have reason to believe the Jaguars attempted to prevent forfeits by moving Hernandez to setter. This way, Hernandez would distribute the ball to female teammates who could spike it instead of spiking it himself—thereby supposedly reducing the danger of girls having to defend shots struck by a boy who could jump significantly higher and slam the ball with greater force.

Janet Chang, the mother of Valencia libero Hannah Chang, provided to WORLD an e-mail Tigers coach James Thorne and principal Chris Hertzfeld sent to parents of Tigers players two days before the playoff match against Jurupa Valley: “I am confident that their team, and in particular their setter, poses no physical risk to our players,” Thorne and Hertzfeld wrote. They later added that “if at any point I felt the match presented a safety concern, I would not hesitate to take the necessary steps to protect our players.”

Hernandez did, in fact, start the playoff match as a setter. However, Hannah Chang noted that after losing the first two sets, with its season on the line, Jurupa Valley moved Hernandez back to a hitter role, based on a review of game footage. The Jaguars still lost, but Hernandez helped make the score in the third set significantly closer (26-24) than in the first two (25-17, 25-11).

Regardless, two Valencia players, Hannah Chang and outside hitter Joelle Salinas, sat out the playoff match for religious reasons, with Thorne’s permission. They didn’t even attend, believing that doing so would support the idea that boys who claim to be girls actually are girls.

“The Bible says God made man and woman,” said Hannah Chang, who along with Salinas shared her story on Fox News. “My family very much believes that people are the gender that God created them to be. Just because they want to be or think they are a different gender doesn’t mean they can change it.”

Petty hopes more Christian female athletes would take the stance Hannah Chang and Salinas did—even if it means sacrificing the chance to compete for state titles.

“We should not participate in the charade,” Petty said. “We should not pretend that (high school athletic associations) afford fair competition, because they don’t.”

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in early 2025 denying federal funds to schools that let boys play on girls’ teams, but multiple states’ high school athletic associations have continued to let boys compete in accordance with their self-proclaimed gender identity.

Editor's note: This story is expanded from the original print version.