Former tennis coach claims UTRGV fired her for sleeping in same room as player due to sexual orientation

EDINBURG, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A former University of Texas Rio Grande Valley assistant women's tennis coach is suing the Intercollegiate Athletics Department for allegedly wrongfully terminating her due to her sexual orientation.

Lisa Carvajal, former Assistant Coach for the UTRGV Women's Tennis Team, alleges that she was wrongfully terminated and set up by the Athletic Department after complications due to sleeping arrangements during an away game.

Carvajal is a McAllen native and an alum of PSJA High School. According to the UTRGV athletics' website, Carvajal played four seasons of collegiate tennis after spending two seasons at Laredo Community College from 2015 to 2017 and two seasons at Texas A&M-Kingsville from 2017 to 2019.

The lawsuit alleges that on Feb. 17, 2022, the UTRGV Women's Head Coach and Carvajal traveled to an Airbnb in Stephenville, Texas with the team. When they arrived, the Head Coach spent "no more than 10 minutes inside the Airbnb" home to look around, the lawsuit alleges.

The women realized that each of the rooms in the house had different bedding set ups and there were no rooms with a singular bed for Coach Carvajal.

The lawsuit states that the Head Coach did not delegate where each player would sleep or where Carvajal would sleep. He then left the girls at the Airbnb and had dinner by himself before picking them up at 6:35 p.m. to have dinner with Carvajal and drive them to H-E-B.

After he dropped all the women off at the Airbnb, including coach Carvajal, he checked himself in to a hotel where he spent the night.

Carvajal alleges she was left with no choice but to sleep in the room with the fewest beds, which was two.

"[Coach Carvajal] was exhausted from her long drive, so she proceeded to get into one of the beds in the room to go to sleep," the lawsuit states. "After she had already gotten into a bed, and presumably because there were no other beds available, a player from the team entered the room and got into the other bed to go to sleep."

The next morning, the UTRGV Women's Team drove to Tarleton State University to play the University of Texas Permian Basin. They won. After the victory, the team returned to the Airbnb. After 4 p.m. the Head Coach walked into the house and asked Carvajal to accompany him outside.

He told her a few student athletes made him aware that Carvajal and a student slept in the same room. Due to her sexual orientation, the Head Coach was told that there was a suspicion that something inappropriate had occurred between she and the student-athlete, the lawsuit alleges.

The Head Coach had Deputy Director of Athletics/Chief Revenue Officer, Vince Volpe, on the phone and said he had to call him because it was the school’s protocol if and when an “incident” such as this occurred.

Carvajal pleaded her case to her superiors. She explained that there was nowhere else for her to sleep, that she fell asleep before the student athlete entered the room and that the two stayed in their respective beds for the duration of the night, the lawsuit claims.

In compliance with the universities protocol, Carvajal was asked by Volpe to leave the premises and drive back to Edinburg until she received further instructions.

On March 11, 2022 she met with Volpe, the Head Coach and UTRGV HR Business Partner, Debra Torres as part of what the lawsuit calls a "sham investigation."

"After [Carvajal] gave her recollection of events, Torres handed her a document to sign," the lawsuit alleges. "After signing the document, Ms. Torres escorted her out to the parking lot so
that she could collect a university-issued laptop computer, a credit card, and several expense
receipts that Plaintiff had collected while on competition trips. [Carvajal] was then required to leave the UTRGV campus and not return until instructed otherwise."

On March 25, 2022, Carvajal received a termination letter sent signed by Chasse S. Conque, Vice President and Director of Athletics.

Carvajal's legal team argues that a similarly-situated male assistant coach would not have been put in the position of staying with female members of the tennis team.

"Further, the Head Coach, ... , who is a male, stayed in his own hotel room while Plaintiff, his female assistant coach was forced into a situation that led to her eventual termination after the sham investigation," the lawsuit alleges. "Because of her gender and sexual orientation, her placement in that situation led to unfounded rumors that were completely unsubstantiated and that led to her termination."

Carvajal stated she felt discriminated against by the Head Coach because he had once told her not to mention that she was gay to any of the players.

"In addition, [Carvajal] discovered that [the Head Coach] had made bigoted comments about gay females," the document alleges.

The lawsuit states that UTRGV violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Title VII prohibits discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, including gender identity and sexual orientation.

Additionally, the lawsuit states that the Head Coach had a responsibility to report travel arrangements to the university seven days prior to the departure date, meaning that the university was aware of the arrangements prior to the trip.

"[The Head Coach’s] decision to house the female tennis players together with [Carvajal] violated UTRGV’s athletic department policy and procedure," the lawsuit alleges.

According to the document, it was the head coaches responsibility to book hotel rooms and make rooming assignments that complied with athletic department policy.

She seeks to recover all of her damages in an amount which the jury determines to be just and appropriate.

ValleyCentral reached out to UTRGV for comment and received the following message:

"We are aware of the lawsuit, but as part of our standard practice, we do not comment on pending litigation," Patrick Gonzales, spokesperson for UTRGV, replied.

In a joint discovery management plan obtained by ValleyCentral, UTRGV states it is disputing Carvajal's allegations and believes it in no way violated Title VII or any other laws.

The university has a pending motion to dismiss all claims made by Carvajal. An initial conference that was scheduled to take place Thursday has be reset for Aug. 29.