Former Utah State star athlete Kaylie Ray tried to share her experience as a victim of the San Jose State volleyball scandal with lawmakers.In response, she was given comments about her body. Arizona Democrat state senator Catherine Miranda told Ray, “I mean, you look pretty healthy… You look very much in shape and strong,” after Ray spoke about having to forfeit a game in protest of a trans athlete, at a senate education hearing on Tuesday. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM”When she started saying those words, the only thing I was thinking is, ‘where could she possibly be going with this?’” Ray told Fox News Digital. “For whatever reason, my physical appearance or stature should have some type of effect on how competitive I am with men. So I was definitely caught off guard.” Ray said she would accept an apology from Miranda, if she is given one. Miranda’s office has not responded to repeated requests for comment. Ray showed up to the state house that day to share deep personal trauma from her college volleyball career.At Utah State, she was an opponent of former San Jose State transgender volleyball player Blaire Fleming for two years in 2022 and 2023, all before having confirmed knowledge that Fleming was male. During that time, Ray said she saw teammates suffer finger injuries from taking Fleming’s signature spikes to the hands. “I had teammates who had seriously jammed their fingers, luckily not broken, but a handful of girls who had sustained minor injuries from the male player,” Ray said, adding that it happened way more often from Fleming’s spikes than those from female players.She added that all of her teammates had their suspicions about Fleming from the moment they watched film ahead of their first matchup on Oct. 1, 2022. “When this player was presented to us, even on film, the immediate reaction is ‘whoa,’” Ray said. “It’s so obvious to the naked eye that this athlete has athleticism, explosiveness, and a power that is just not matched by any of the other athletes.” Utah State lost that first match against Fleming, three sets to one.Ray said there were some people on her team that were making comments about Fleming being a male.”After watching this player compete, it was so obvious to us, but obviously we don’t want to speculate,” Ray said. She said her team had to come up with a new strategy that they simply had no need for prior to Fleming’s arrival in the Mountain West.SJSU VOLLEYBALL SCANDAL LAWSUIT COULD BE IMPACTED BY SUPREME COURT TRANS ATHLETE CASES AFTER JUDGE’S DECISION”Because Blaire attacked from such a high point of contact… the goal is to just get your hands over the net as far as you can,” she said. “Get your hands low and over, and if Blaire hits over the top of you, it’s a good swing by that player. There was kind of like a helplessness of, ‘let’s just do everything we can to force them to set other players.'”Utah State won the rematch against SJSU in November, three sets to two. T
Former Utah State volleyball star says SJSU trans scandal caused injured fingers, shattered dreams
