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A California high school girls’ volleyball playoff game on Oct. 22 was the subject of national attention due to the presence of a transgender athlete. Two female players on the opposing team who refused to take the court that night have now come forward to speak about their decision.
Jurupa Valley High School, which rostered the trans athlete AB Hernandez on its girls’ team, lost to Valencia High School in straight sets in front of a crowd of protesters wielding “Save Girls Sports” gear. It marked the end of Jurupa’s controversial season, which had been marred by at least 10 forfeits, and Hernandez’s high school volleyball career.
The parents of two female players for Valencia who chose not to play that night provided a joint statement, written by the two girls, to Fox News Digital on the condition of anonymity.
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Fans wearing “Save Girls Sports” shirts pose during a CIF Southern Section Division 5 girls volleyball playoff match against Valencia, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2025, in Placentia, California. (Kirby Lee/Getty Images)
“On October 18, our team was informed that we would be playing Jurupa Valley High School in Round 1 of CIF. When scouting the team, we quickly realized that they had a transgender player who we would be competing against on October 22. Ten other teams had previously forfeited against Jurupa, which alarmed our team and led us to consider whether we should play or not,” the statement began.
“Due to our beliefs and values, we decided to sit out and not attend our first-round CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) game. We believe that allowing males in women’s sports is unfair, creates safety concerns, and goes against our faith. We value fair competition and integrity in volleyball, and our hope is to continue playing the sport we love without having to be in a position where we know the situation is wrong.”
The two girls went on to cite their Christian faith as a reason for not playing, and insisted their actions were not aimed directly at Hernandez.
“As Christians, our decision to sit out of this game was not hard to make, but it was uncomfortable being the only ones to do so. We chose not only to sit out from playing, but also not to attend the game, as a way to show our stance and our disagreement. Our goal was not to single out AB Hernandez, but to express our belief that biological males should not compete in women’s sports,” the statement continued.
“Our decision was not made out of hate or discrimination toward anyone, but rather from our conviction in fairness and faith. It is our hope that the integrity of women’s sports is honored and preserved.”
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The Oct. 22 match wasn’t even Hernandez’s first playoff high school volleyball game. Hernandez had competed for Jurupa Valley each of the last three years and went to the postseason in 2024 as well.
But the added national attention and controversy befell the team this year after Hernandez was thrust into the center of a political conflict between President Donald Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom at the end of the track and field season in the spring.
Hernandez made a run to the girls’ state finals in long jump, triple jump and high jump, prompting Trump to send a Truth Social post in the days ahead of the event warning Newsom and the state not to allow a trans athlete to compete in the girls’ events. Trump signed an executive order to prohibit schools from allowing biological males to play in girls’ sports in February, but the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) has persistently defied it.
Instead, the CIF changed its rules to award any female athlete who competed in the same events as Hernandez a spot in the competition or one spot higher on the medal podium if they finished behind a biological male athlete.
Hernandez went on to take first place in high jump and triple jump, and second place in long jump.
The rule change resulted in Hernandez sharing podium spots with female athletes who finished behind the trans athlete in the state finals.
Then, shortly after this year’s volleyball season began, two of Jurupa Valley’s senior players, McPherson and Hadeel Hazameh, stepped away from the team in protest of the trans athlete.
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McPherson and Hazameh have also filed a lawsuit against the Jurupa Unified School District citing their experience playing and sharing a locker room with Hernandez the previous three seasons. McPherson’s older sister and former JVHS girls’ volleyball player Madison McPherson is the third plaintiff in that lawsuit.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the CIF and California Department of Education in July for refusing to change its transgender policies to comply with Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order, weeks after Hernandez’s track and field championships.
And now with the fall sports season coming to a close, Hernandez is still eligible to compete in one more girls’ track and field season in the spring.
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