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Former Utah State athlete Kaylie Ray tried to share her experience as a victim of the San Jose State volleyball scandal with lawmakers.
In response, he was given a comment about his body.
Arizona Democrat Senator Catherine Miranda told Ray, “I mean, you look healthy… You look in good shape and strong,” after Ray spoke about losing a match against a trans athlete, at a Senate education hearing Tuesday.
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“When he first said those words, all I could think was, ‘Where are you going with this?'” Ray told Fox News Digital. “For whatever reason, my physical appearance or makeup should affect how I compete with men. So I was caught off guard.”
Ray said he would accept Miranda’s apology, if given. Miranda’s office has not responded to repeated requests for comment.
Ray appeared at the statehouse that day to share his deepest trauma from his college volleyball career.
At Utah State, she was a rival to former San Jose State volleyball player Blaire Fleming for two years in 2022 and 2023, before confirming that Fleming was the man. At that time, Ray said he saw his colleagues injure their fingers by taking Fleming’s spikes from their hands.
“I had teammates who had their fingers pinched, luckily they weren’t broken, but a couple of girls were slightly injured by a male player,” said Ray, adding that it happened more often with Fleming’s spikes than with female players.
He added that all of his teammates were suspicious of Fleming from the time they watched film before their first game on Oct. 1, 2022.
“When this player is introduced, even on film, the immediate reaction is ‘whoa,”’ Ray said. “It’s obvious to the naked eye that this athlete has the ability to run, explode, and have power that is unmatched by any other athlete.”
Utah State lost that first match against Fleming, three sets to one.
Ray said there were people on his team who were commenting on Fleming being a man.
After watching this player compete, it was obvious to us, but obviously we don’t want to speculate,” said Ray.
He said his team had to come up with a new strategy that they didn’t need before Fleming arrived in the Mountain West.
SJSU VOLLEYBALL SCANDAL COULD BE LITIGATED BY ATHLETES’ LAWSUITS IN SUPREME COURT AFTER JUDGE’S DECISION.
“Because Blaire attacked at such a high point of contact … the aim is to just put your hands on the net as much as you can,” he said. “Get your hands down and over, and if Blaire hits on you, it’s a good swing for that player. There was a kind of helplessness, ‘let’s do everything we can to force them to put other players up.’
Ray said there were people on his team who were commenting on Fleming being a man. (Courtesy of ICONS, Getty Images)
Utah State won a rematch against SJSU in November, three sets to two. They then met in the 2022 conference finals, with Ray’s team winning the second of three consecutive Mountain West titles. But Ray says they were ultimately at the mercy of how well Fleming played that day.
“We knew that if a male athlete had a great game, there was nothing we could do to stop that guy… and to be honest with you, Blaire didn’t have a great game,” Ray said. “To be honest, I think you go into any game hoping that their best player isn’t going to have their best night. I wouldn’t say it was pointless because we’d beaten them before and we knew we could do it again.”
The following season, Utah State won both games against SJSU, both in straight sets. Fleming played in only the second of those two games, missing time with an injury. In that second game, Fleming led SJSU in points, but Utah State had answers, and won the game en route to a third straight conference title.
It was the last time Ray played Fleming.
As the scandal unfolded across the country in 2024, Ray, as captain, was trying to lead his team to a fourth straight Mountain West championship.
“I wanted it badly,” he said.
However, the official news of Fleming’s birth gender reached their locker room.
“I felt sick. I felt sick to my stomach,” Ray said.
His team had to put the competition aside.
“[Utah State administrators] we ended up sending out an anonymous survey to our girls while we were on the road… to explain our thoughts and feelings about competing against San Jose, and our management took that information and allowed us to lose,” Ray said.
It was the first of seven shutouts for the Spartans that season, each one bringing more scrutiny and danger to the program. But at Utah State, the loss came back during their entire season, behind closed doors.
“The girls were really sick of this … to have this loss on our record, it was really disappointing,” he said. “We were very distracted during the season.”
Ray joined the charge led by former SJSU captain Brooke Slusser against the Mountain West later that season, and they even challenged in court to overturn the forfeit. But a judge appointed by Biden did not grant a reversal.
And because of that loss, Ray’s team finished behind SJSU in the standings. When the brackets came out, they faced the anxiety of knowing that if they returned to the championship game, they would have to play SJSU.
The only thing anyone could focus on was, ‘well, if we win, we have to play San Jose, do we have to lose again?'” Ray said of the team’s mindset before its first-round game against Boise State in that tournament. “That was my team’s attitude…we were already beat coming into the tournament.”
FORMER SJSU VOLLEYBALL PLAYER OPENS UP ABOUT LIVING WITH A TRANS SPOUSE WITHOUT KNOWING SEX AS A LIFETIME ATHLETE
Brooke Slusser #10 and Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans call the game during the first set against the Air Force Falcons on Falcon Court in the East Gym on Oct. 19, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
Ray and his teammates did not make it through the first round. It lost to Boise State, which then advanced to SJSU in the semifinals.
Ray still hasn’t gotten a medal for not winning this fourth conference title, which he believes his team would have won if the conditions were normal. But it wasn’t normal, by any means.
“We wanted it so bad, coupled with the trauma and anxiety, and the horrible, horrible emotions that happened during the season, it was very difficult to keep that goal visible.”
Ray is done with college volleyball now. He played another season at Weber State last fall and has since graduated. Now, much of her attention is on fighting to “save women’s sports,” as she attempted to do in her state capital this past week.
In January, he spoke with Slusser outside the US Supreme Court at a rally during oral arguments in two cases involving men in women’s sports. That day, Ray began to take a closer look at the forces opposing his cause, and the transgender rally that was taking place right next to them.
“It was the first time in my life to see that group of people. What impressed me the most was that next to their speakers they were raising a flag, a transsexual flag, but in the middle of the flag there was a sign of Satan written ‘Church of Satan,'” said Ray.
“It was obviously a battle between good and evil… If you offend a group of Satan people, they don’t care what you say… if you fight against evil, it will be uncomfortable.”
SJSU is the latest battleground in that battle.
The US Department of Education’s Office of Human Rights (OCR) ruled that SJSU violated Title IX in its treatment of Fleming in late January. But SJSU and the California University (CSU) system they are suing federal government to challenge that investigation.
“San Jose State is disgusting,” Ray said of the offense. “It’s rude, and it’s weird.”
Fox News Digital contacted SJSU and CSU for a response to Ray’s comments.
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US Education Secretary Linda McMahon responded on Wednesday, giving institutions a 10-day deadline to reach an agreement or risk cuts in federal funding and referral to the US Department of Justice.
“President Trump, you know what to do,” Ray added.
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