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A federal judge denied the majority of Harvard’s motion to dismiss former hockey coach Katey Stone’s gender discrimination lawsuit on Friday.

Stone — who led Harvard’s women’s ice hockey team — resigned from her position in June 2023 after a University investigation into allegations, published in the Boston Globe and the Athletic, that she had fostered a toxic environment on the team.

Stone then sued the University in July 2024, claiming that the investigation into her coaching practices would have been handled differently if she were a male coach and alleging she faced retaliation for advocating for equal pay for female coaches at Harvard.

Harvard initially moved to dismiss the case in October, arguing that Stone filed her suit after the statute of limitations had expired on her claims of pay and gender discrimination.

Since then, Stone and the University have engaged in a heated legal back-and-forth. Friday’s order — from Massachusetts District Judge Leo T. Sorokin — was the first official ruling in the case.

Sorokin sided with a March recommendation to allow most of Stone’s suit alleging to proceed written by Judge Jennifer C. Boal, the federal magistrate judge who has overseen the case.

But Sorokin argued that Stone only had to receive a paycheck within three years of the lawsuit to be eligible to sue. Receiving unequal pay could make Stone’s broader claims viable under the continuing violations doctrine, which extends the statute of limitations in cases where plaintiffs may have faced an ongoing pattern of discrimination, Sorokin wrote Friday.

Sorokin said he was obligated to give Stone’s claims the benefit of the doubt, arguing that “the Court must consider the facts in the light most favorable to Stone” at this point in the proceedings.

He accepted that Harvard’s replies to Stone failed to sufficiently prove that she would not have been subjected to the same level of scrutiny if she was a man.

While Sorokin allowed nearly all of Stone’s claims to move forward over Harvard’s objections, he agreed with Boal in allowing Stone’s claims regarding pay inequity before July 2021 to be dismissed.

Stone’s legal counsel Regina Federico wrote in a statement that she and the team were “pleased that Judge Sorokin adopted the report and recommendation of Magistrate Judge Boal,” adding that they look forward to the continuation of the lawsuit.

A Harvard spokesperson declined to comment, citing a University policy against commenting on active litigation.

—Staff writer Elyse C. Goncalves can be reached at elyse.goncalves@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @e1ysegoncalves.

—Staff writer Akshaya Ravi can be reached at akshaya.ravi@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @akshayaravi22.