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EXCLUSIVE: California high school students Hadeel Hazameh and Alyssa McPherson are currently suing their school district for alleged Title IX violations within their women’s volleyball team. The two teenagers left the team in September to protest a trans player.
They still wanted to go watch their team play its first state playoff game of the season last Wednesday. But Hazameh and McPherson alleged their coach wouldn’t let them sit with their teammates on the bench for this game.
Jurupa Valley players Hadeel Hazameh (left) and Alyssa McPherson, who filed a lawsuit against the Jurupa Unified School District to protest transgender player AB Hernandez, look on during a CIF Southern Section Division 5 girls volleyball playoff match against Valencia, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2025, in Placentia, Calif. (Kirby Lee/Getty Images)
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After sitting down with their teammates for senior night earlier this month, the two teens alleged that Jurupa Valley High School volleyball coach Liana Manu told them that the next time they wanted to sit down with the team, they should let her know first.
“So this time we were just going to respect her and ask, ‘Can we sit on the bench?’ And she told me: ‘Unfortunately, no, today you can’t,'” Hazameh said of Manu. Hazameh added that the coach offered to explain why after the match, but the player did not accept her coach’s offer.
McPherson said: “I had texted her myself, around 4:30 p.m., and I asked her if I could sit on the bench because she told Hadeel I had to ask for myself. So I asked for myself and I never got a response from her.”
The two girls bought tickets to watch the match with the spectators. There, they huddled in the crowd with a group of “Save Girls’ Sports” protesters.
Footage of the two girls participating in the game went viral on
Another clip showed two other women shouting loudly behind the two teenagers, apparently cheering for the match on the field. Hazameh claimed one of the women yelled at him to stop recording video of the match.
Valencia won the match in straight sets, ending Jurupa Valley’s season.
Fans pose during a CIF Southern Section Division 5 women’s volleyball playoff game against Valencia, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2025, in Placentia, California. (Kirby Lee/Getty Images)
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Hazameh and McPherson felt a deep sense of relief.
“I just wanted this whole thing to be over,” McPheron said. “No one deserves to be eliminated [of the playoffs] due to an unfair advantage. And I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. So I just hoped it would be done and finished.
“I was just relieved that it was all over and the season was over.”
Hazameh added: “I’m just very happy that the biological girls and the other team worked really hard and they still won.”
They never imagined their high school volleyball careers would end with their own team losing. But circumstances have taken a toll over the past two months.
Hazameh said she recently broke down in tears when she went back to read old text messages exchanged at the end of the summer with a friend who graduated last year.
“‘I pray my senior year is as amazing as your guys’ year, and I just hope I have an amazing year,'” the text message read. “I just burst into tears because my senior year was absolutely horrible, and everything I was excited for and looking forward to fell apart.”
Hazameh and McPherson described receiving hurtful messages on social media and receiving “dirty looks” in the hallways. But they even allege that their director contributed to this project.
“She even got the volleyball team together and told them they didn’t have to wave and show us good sportsmanship,” McPherson said.
But despite all this, both teenagers still believe they are “doing the right thing.”
And they’re not done playing high school sports either, even if it means sharing a team with the trans athlete.
Hazameh and McPherson say they will join the women’s track and field team in the spring, although the trans athlete will also compete. Last year, the trans athlete won two state championships in the girls’ triple jump and high jump.
Hazameh lost to a trans athlete in at least seven track and field competitions throughout his high school career.
This season, they are all set to be seniors and expected to compete together while Hazameh and McPherson’s lawsuit against the school district rages in the background.
PK Press Club Digital reached out to the Jurupa Unified School District and Jurupa Valley High School Girls Volleyball Booster Club for comment.
