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A California girls’ high school volleyball team has two more games scratched from its schedule after rival schools forfeited, escalating a controversy surrounding a transgender athlete on its roster.

Maribel Munoz, the mother of one of the Jurupa Valley High School girls’ volleyball team players, confirmed the forfeits to Fox News Digital after Jurupa Valley head coach Liana Manu told parents the games were canceled. The forfeited matches were against Rim of the World High School on Aug. 25 and Orange Vista High School on Aug. 29.

Jurupa Valley Unified School District (JUSD) released a statement in response to the latest forfeits, noting it did not make that decision. “We understand and acknowledge the disappointment of our Jurupa Valley High School athletes who are ready and prepared to play. Decisions to cancel matches were made by teams in other districts,” the district statement said.

“We are required by California law to protect students from discrimination based on gender identity,” the district continued, citing Education Code 221.5 (f), which reads in part, “It shall be the duty of the governing boards of schools … to allow a student to participate on an athletic team that is consistent with the student’s gender identity.” District officials noted this interpretation was also the position of California Attorney General Rob Bonta and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond.

“We are proud of our JVHS Jaguars and their willingness to play any team and represent their school and our district with pride,” the district said. JUSD said it was “working on lining up new matches to ensure these athletes have opportunities to play and don’t lose a single game because of the forfeits.”

The latest forfeits followed a decision by Riverside Poly High School to skip an Aug. 15 match against Jurupa Valley. Fox News Digital previously reported, based on interviews with parents and a local school board member, that the decision to forfeit that game was made because of the team’s transgender player, senior AB Hernandez.

Hernandez’s mother, Nereyda Hernandez, spoke out following the recent forfeits, asking for compassion and understanding. “I understand the discomfort some may feel, because I was once there, too. The difference is, I chose to learn, to grow, and to open my heart,” Hernandez said.

She described her daughter as small in stature and pointed out that what makes her different from other athletes is not her size or strength. “This is a child, and I can assure you that she sees your daughters as peers, as teammates, as friends, not through a lens of anything inappropriate,” Hernandez added. “She is not even aware the matches were forfeited because of her, and I would not want her to know.”

Hernandez is no stranger to the national spotlight. In the spring, during her final season of track and field, she won two California state titles in the long jump and triple jump. Those wins were met with protests from other female athletes and their families, many of whom wore shirts that read “Save Girls’ Sports.” Attention intensified when President Donald Trump shared a message on Truth Social before the state final, encouraging California not to allow a trans athlete to compete in the event, although Trump did not mention Hernandez by name.

In July, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) over its policies allowing transgender athletes to compete on girls’ teams, despite Trump having signed an executive order in February barring it.

As for Hernandez, she should be preparing for games, not forfeits, in her final high school volleyball season.

Jurupa Valley parent Munoz, whose daughter has played on the team with Hernandez for three years, expressed frustration with the situation during an interview. “It makes me feel sad, it makes me feel angry, frustrated, just so many emotions,” Munoz said.

Parents have appeared at school board meetings in both the Riverside Unified School District and Jurupa Valley Unified School District, sometimes taking opposite sides of the issue. At a recent Riverside Unified meeting, parents spoke in favor of the Riverside Poly athletes and their decision not to play against Jurupa Valley. Others spoke about their support for the transgender girl and her right to compete.

At that same meeting, Nereyda Hernandez had words for Riverside board member Amanda Vickers for previously speaking to Fox News Digital about the forfeiture. “You actually entertained and welcomed harassment to my child,” Hernandez said of Vickers. “You are a board member. You have an oath to protect, to support all children, not just the ones that fit your ideas, your beliefs.”

She later added, “The people harassing our school districts, this is not a parent-versus-parent thing. This is a very well-organized effort to purposefully make other parents feel afraid of each other for religious reasons and to pit us against each other.”

She called the effort a campaign “nothing to do with fairness in sports and everything to do with erasing transgender children.”

Parents such as Maria Carrillo spoke in the opposite vein at the Riverside Unified School District meeting, hailing the Poly girls for standing their ground. “Poly girls, we stand with you. Keep fighting, because these parents who support their confused child are the problem,” Carrillo said.

Jurupa Valley’s girls’ volleyball regular season is set to continue through mid-October. But with more possible forfeits on the horizon, the team finds itself in the middle of a national controversy with no end in sight.

The pressure on California just increased this month when Trump turned his focus back to the state. In a post on Truth Social, Trump again threatened to withhold federal funding from California school districts unless they fully embraced his administration’s transgender policy.

With a state law that collides with Trump’s executive order and a new Justice Department lawsuit, families on all sides now face a school season sure to be anything but smooth.