Las Vegas Aces rookie Justine Pissott has spoken out about her own sexual assault experience, lending support to other victims amid recent media coverage of the Cornell 7 case.
“This is a vulnerable message but something I want to share,” she wrote via her Instagram Story on Tuesday, September 29. “As someone who has been drugged and raped, the Cornell 7 situation has been really hard for me to see. It hits a place in me that I don’t talk about often. When something like this happens to you, it doesn’t just end when that night ends. You carry it with you.”
Pissott, 22, continued, “The confusion, the pieces you can’t remember, questioning yourself, blaming yourself, and trying to understand how someone could take advantage of you when you weren’t even able to protect yourself.”
Pissott is in her first season in the WNBA after the Indiana Fever drafted her in the second round of the 2026 WNBA Draft. The team released her after one preseason game and she eventually caught on with the Aces, who are now battling the Fever in the WNBA Playoffs.
The guard continued to empathize with the victim, identified only as Jane Doe, who sued Cornell University in September. Doe claimed she was gang raped by seven fraternity brothers in October 2024, and although she reported the alleged incident weeks later, none of the men she said were involved faced criminal charges and only two were suspended. The others were ordered to write essays and attend workshops.
“And then you see people questioning survivors,” Pissott wrote. “Asking why they didn’t speak sooner, why they stayed quiet, why they acted a certain way afterward. But unless you’ve been through it, you really don’t understand [what] trauma can do to a person. There is no ‘right’ way to respond to something that never should’ve happened in the first place.”
Pissott, who did not specify when her sexual assault occurred, graduated from Vanderbilt University in the spring. Her college coach, Shea Ralph, seemed unsurprised by the alum’s willingness to speak up and said she was proud of her for doing so.
“There is a lot of growth that happened here for her both on and off the basketball court,” Ralph, 48, told The Tennessean in a video published Wednesday, September 30. “And to be courageous enough and brave enough to share that with the world in hopes that it could help other people… For her to be able to do that to this point was really cool. It just shows her growth as a human and her desire to want to help other young women, whether they’ve gone through something similar or not, to show them that you can be great no matter what you go through.”
Pissott ended her message by saying she hopes she can help other survivors feel seen.
“I don’t speak about my experience for sympathy. I speak about it because I know how lonely this kind of pain can feel,” she wrote. “And if sharing even a small part of my story makes another survivor feel less alone, then it’s worth it. To her and every survivor carrying something similar, I see you. I’m praying for you. And I pray we continue creating a world where survivors feel safe enough to use their voice without being torn apart for how they survived.”
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten announced on Monday, September 28, that the Cornell 7 case would be reopened and that he plans to present evidence to a grand jury for a possible indictment.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
