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Last Friday, June 5, 23 student-athletes, including a group of incoming recruits, from the Quinnipiac University Women’s Rugby team filed a motion in federal court seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to stop the university from eliminating their varsity program and to address ongoing Title IX violations affecting female athletes. Perez et al v. Quinnipiac University et al follows Quinnipiac’s April 14 decision to terminate women’s varsity rugby at the end of the 2025-26 academic year, despite the team’s status as a nationally recognized Division I program and its past role in expanding opportunities for women’s sports at the university.
RELATED: GoFundMe page for legal expenses
https://nextphaserugby.com
Players allege that Quinnipiac has engaged in long-standing sex discrimination by providing women’s teams with unequal benefits, treatment, and support across key areas of athletics, and that the decision to cut women’s rugby is a retaliatory response to repeated Title IX concerns raised about the treatment of female athletes. They are asking the court to preserve the women’s rugby program and to require equal treatment and opportunities for present and future female student-athletes at Quinnipiac.
The Connecticut law firm of Christine Brown & Partners is handling the case, which is number is 3:26-cv-0098.
https://navysports.evenue.net/events/GR-CAMP
Two of the plaintiffs – Regan Perez, rising junior; and Carolyn Melody, rising sophomore – shared the following statement:
“[O]ur counsel filed a motion in federal court asking the court to immediately force the university to reinstate women’s rugby as a varsity program. Quinnipiac chose to eliminate one of the most successful programs in school history while adding men’s indoor and outdoor track, and it did so at the worst possible time for all of us who have been affected. We believe that decision raises serious Title IX concerns, breaks the promises made to all of the players who committed to Quinnipiac to compete at the varsity Division I level, and treats our futures like line items that can be erased overnight.
“Quinnipiac women’s rugby has been one of the leading programs in the country. We chose Quinnipiac because we believed in what this program stood for, and we are fighting to protect that opportunity for current and future athletes. We are asking the court to reverse this decision and stop forcing its own athletes to fight for rights they should never have had to defend in the first place. We are grateful for the support we have received, and we will continue standing together as we seek a fair outcome.”
The Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction has been scheduled for June 16 at 10 a.m. ET, and the Preliminary Injunction Hearing will follow at 11 a.m., in Bridgeport, Conn., before Judge Kari A. Dooley.