The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Monday reinstated a lawsuit filed by three female wrestlers after the university eliminated its women’s wrestling program.

Noreen Farrell is one of the attorneys on the case. She says the women were told back in the year 2000 that they'd have to compete against men … then were cut from the varsity team.

“What happened was the university required them to have wrestle-offs, so compete against young men in their weight-class in order to have a slot on the team. And so in the course of trying to compete against men for slots on the team of course they were eliminated. They couldn’t compete against men.” 

The plaintiffs accuse UC Davis of violating Title IX – that’s the federal law that requires schools to offer equal athletic opportunities to men and women.

Steve Drown is the university’s chief legal counsel.

“We’re reviewing our options. It could be a motion for reconsideration. It could be further review. We need to digest the opinion first. We think the evidence is going to show that the university is fully compliant with Title 9 and it’s engaged in no discrimination.”  

The case could go to trial within the year.