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A former Northwestern volleyball player has now filed a lawsuit against the university, its athletic department, volleyball coach Shane Davis, the school’s last two presidents and its last three athletic directors regarding a 2021 hazing incident.
The anonymous former Northwestern volleyball player is represented by attorneys Parker Stinar and Patrick Salvi, the same lawyers who recently filed lawsuits on behalf of multiple Northwestern football players.
According to ESPN, the anonymous volleyball player claims she was injured as part of a “punishment” given to her by Northwestern volleyball coach Shane Davis.
The volleyball player, who attended Northwestern from 2019 through 2023, also claims Davis “enabled a culture of racism, bullying, harassment, hazing and retaliation.”
“Jane Doe’s complaint outlines the institutional failures at Northwestern beyond the volleyball and football programs, shedding light of a corrupt athletic department,” Stinar said in a statement provided to ESPN.
In addition to these allegations against the Northwestern volleyball program, multiple lawsuits have also been filed against the football program. Those allegations resulted in the firing of head coach Pat Fitzgerald.
The Northwestern baseball team is also under scrutiny after a recent report was published which claimed that first-year head coach Jim Foster created a “toxic workplace environment.”
Allegedly, it was this environment that led to half the team ending up in therapy and a pair of coaches leaving the team prior to the 2023 season in February.
“Unlike the situation with Fitz [Pat Fitzgerald], you without a doubt will not be seeing any support for him being signed off on by our team, which speaks volumes,” one player who transferred said about Foster.
16 players out of the 35 that were on the team’s roster have entered the transfer portal since baseball season’s end.
“Those are kids that have put three years into this university, into the school, into the team, into this community and are willing to forego their Northwestern education so that they can play for a different head coach,” a source said. “That is something that we should be embarrassed by.”