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The lawsuit names only one plaintiff, 24-year-old forward Andrew Creppin. The others must now seek certification as members of a class action.

Many are hesitant to be named in the suit because they have suffered from being publicly identified as team members, Mr. Greenspon said.

The university “punished Andrew and the rest of the students on the team before any due process was carried out,” he said. “It’s unconscionable for the university to tarnish the reputation of its student athletes in the manner that they did when they knew that these students were not involved.

“There is a right way and a wrong way to go about investigating sexual assault. This was the wrong way.”

Mr. Creppin said the university “talked down” to the team members, kept them in the dark, and then “they basically accused us all and threw us under the bus.”

He said at the time of the alleged assault he was at a Thunder Bay hospital where he and others had taken a sick teammate.

The suspension has caused him and other team members extreme anxiety and stress, he said. Some people on campus assume that since he was on the team, he must have been part of a “rape culture.”

“I was anxious going out in public. … People ask you all the time about it. … It’s very difficult when people ask you the same questions over and over again, like ‘What happened? What’s going on?’

“People jump to the conclusion that you’re hiding it” and that “you’re a rapist, part of this whole culture,” Mr. Creppin said.