A Biden-appointed federal judge has ruled that a male who identifies as a transgender woman can compete in a women’s college volleyball tournament, in a dismissal of a lawsuit by women on five different teams.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Kato Crews, who was appointed by President Joe Biden in January, denied a motion for an emergency delay in a lawsuit filed by a group of female volleyball players in the NCAA Mountain West Conference, which requested that San Jose State University’s (SJSU) male player Blaire Fleming, who identifies as a transgender woman, be barred from playing in the conference tournament, and that the forfeits that the teams took instead of playing against Fleming be reversed.

The controversy began in October when Southern Utah University forfeited a match against SJSU. Since then, four other teams also forfeited matches against SJSU out of concern over the safety of the players and fairness. In a statement from the University of Nevada Reno women’s team regarding their decision to forfeit, they remarked, “We demand that our right to safety and fair competition on the court be upheld. We refuse to participate in any match that advances injustice against female athletes.”

Numerous instances of females being injured by male players have occurred in recent years, including high school volleyball player Payton McNabb, who suffered “a concussion, vision problems, and partial paralysis to the right side of her body” after she was struck in the head by a spiked ball from a male player.

Despite these concerns and the lawsuit’s citing of First Amendment and Title IX violations, Crews wrote that the plaintiffs’ appeal for an emergency delay “was not reasonable” and “would risk confusion and upend months of planning and would prejudice, at a minimum, (San Jose State) and other teams participating in the tournament.”

As a result of the ruling, one of the four teams that forfeited to SJSU in the regular season is guaranteed to play against them in the upcoming semifinal match in the Mountain West tournament. SJSU has gained a clear advantage as a result of the forfeits, as it helped the Spartans to a #2 seed and a first-round bye in the tournament. Meanwhile, despite not playing in seven forfeited matches, Fleming is “third in the conference in average kills per serve with 3.86 and amassed 297 total kills on the year.”

The ruling comes as an overwhelming majority of Americans say they want fairness in women’s sports. Polls show that three-quarters of U.S. voters oppose men who identify as women competing in women’s sports.

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to “keep men out of women’s sports,” and experts say that when he takes office, he can pursue this campaign promise by rescinding Biden-era guidance on gender identity in Title IX, pursuing an agreement with the NCAA, asking for a Supreme Court review of related cases, and other measures.

Mary Szoch, a former NCAA Division I athlete who serves as director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, encouraged the incoming Trump administration to take action to protect girls’ sports.

“Men should not be able to play women’s sports. This is not rocket science — it’s basic biology,” she told The Washington Stand. “Men are generally stronger than women, faster than women, and can jump higher than women. Men playing women’s sports — especially a sport like volleyball — makes no sense. It’s not only unfair, it’s unsafe. I look forward to the day when the Trump administration reverses every Biden rule that embraced a woke ideology over the health and safety of human beings.”