SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) — After the University of Nevada women’s volleyball players refused to play against San Jose State University, the school became the fifth school to forfeit a match against the Spartans this season and the decision was applauded by a member of SJSU’s own roster.

SJSU’s women’s volleyball team continues to be at the center of a nationwide debate about transgender participation in sports.

The controversy could now cost them their first NCAA Tournament appearance in more than two decades.

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But it also highlights an increase in hateful rhetoric against the LGBTQ+ community.

“This is not what America is supposed to be,” said Billy DeFrank LGBTQ+ Community Center President Gabrielle Antolovich. “But it’s very dangerous right now.”

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The University of Nevada is now the fifth team to lose a game against San Jose State, the result of unconfirmed claims by a Spartans volleyball player that one of her own teammates is transgender.

After moving Saturday’s game to San Jose from Reno, citing athlete safety, Nevada school officials said the game would go ahead.

However, several Wolfpack players refused to play in any game that “promotes injustice against female athletes,” forcing the team to forfeit.

Spartans volleyball co-captain Brook Slusser applauded the decision.

She is one of many current and former athletes part of a lawsuit challenging the NCAA’s Title IX protections for transgender people in women’s sports.

Slusser made his first on-camera comments about forfeiture this season in an exclusive interview with Fox News. She did not respond to our requests for comment.

“This is just a great step in the right direction for women’s sports, to finally be able to stand up and say, ‘no, this is not happening, this is not right,'” Slusser said. “And that’s great. So I can’t do anything but support their decision because if I were in their shoes I would do the same thing.”

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Mountain West Conference commissioner Gloria Nevarez said the forfeits volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State are “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken by what has happened this season around the Spartans and their opponents.

SJSU has beefed up security amid increasing threats to the team and coaches.

A spokesperson says its athletes follow NCAA and conference standards and “we will continue to take steps to prioritize the health and safety of our students as they pursue their earned opportunities to compete.”

Antolovich loves team sports and the bonds it builds, but fears this situation has grown to be about more than one athlete.

“There is a certain segment of society that uses transgender people as a way to bombard the LGBTQ+ community with hate,” Antolovich said.

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The Spartans need to play 19 games to make the NCAA Tournament, they are 14.

With 8 games remaining, if more forfeits happen, the Spartans may have to apply for a waiver to allow them to play if they qualify.

SJSU is scheduled to play Wyoming and Boise State in November, two schools that have already lost games to the Spartans.

The top-6 teams qualify for the Mountain West tournament and the Spartans are among those teams right now with a 7-3 conference record after Nevada’s forfeit.