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EXCLUSIVE: California high school seniors Hadeel Hazameh and Alyssa McPherson are currently suing their school district for alleged violations of Title IX within their girls volleyball team. The two teenagers stepped away from the team in September in protest against a trans player.
They still wanted to go see their team play the first playoff game of the season last Wednesday. But Hazameh and McPherson claimed their coach wouldn’t let them sit with their teammates on the bench in that game.
Jurupa Valley players Hadeel Hazameh (left) and Alyssa McPherson, who filed a lawsuit against the Jurupa Unified school district in protest of transgender player AB Hernandez, watch 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 with their teammates at senior night earlier this month, the two teenagers claimed Jurupa Valley High School volleyball coach Liana Manu told them that the next time they want to sit with the team, they should tell her first.
“So this time we just had to respect her and ask her, ‘can we sit on the bench?’ And she said, ‘Unfortunately, no, today you can’t,'” Hazameh claimed of Manu. Hazameh added that the coach offered to explain why after the match, but the player did not take his coach up on the offer.
McPherson said, “I had also texted her myself around 4:30 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 an answer from her.”
The two girls bought tickets to sit for the match with spectators. There, they regrouped in the crowd with a group of “Save Girls’ Sports” protesters.
Footage of the two girls at the game has gone viral on X. A clip that captured Sen. Rep. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, showed two elderly women in the back of the stand making malicious hand gestures, allegedly to Hazameh and McPherson.
Another clip showed two other women shouting loudly behind the two teenagers, apparently cheering on the play on the pitch. Hazameh alleged that one of the women yelled at her to stop recording a video of the fight.
Valencia went on to win the match in straight sets, ending Jurupa Valley’s season.
Fans pose during a CIF Southern Section Division 5 girls volleyball playoff match against Valencia on 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 it all to end,” McPheron said. “Nobody deserves to be kicked out [of the playoffs] because of an unfair advantage. And I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. So I was just hoping this would be done and over with.
“I was just relieved it was all over and like the season is 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 career would end with their own team losing. But circumstances took their toll on them over the past two months.
Hazameh said she recently broke down in tears when she went back to read some old text messages exchanged at the end of the summer with a friend who graduated last year.
“‘I pray my senior year is as great as your guys’ year and I just hope I have a great year,'” the text read. “I just broke down in tears because my senior year has been absolutely horrible and everything I was excited about and looking forward to just crumbled.”
Hazameh and McPherson told stories of receiving hurtful messages on social media and getting “dirty looks” in the hallways. But they even claim that their principal has helped contribute to it.
“She even got the volleyball team together and she told them they didn’t have to give us high fives and basically show us sportsmanship,” McPherson alleged.
But through it all, the two teenagers still believe they are “doing the right thing”.
And they’re not done playing high school sports either, even if that means sharing a team with the trans athlete.
Both Hazameh and McPherson say they will rejoin the girls’ track team this 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 has lost to a trans athlete in at least seven track and field events throughout his high school career.
This season, they are all set to be seniors and are expected to compete together while Hazameh and McPherson’s lawsuit against the school district rages on in the background.
Pakinomist Digital has reached out to the Jurupa Unified School District and the Jurupa Valley High School girls’ volleyball booster club for comment.
