A federal court Thursday granted a preliminary injunction to halt the cutting of two women's teams at Eastern Michigan University.

In a strongly worded ruling, U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh said "there is a clear showing that (Eastern is) in violation of Title IX." He ordered the two sides to appear in his courtroom at the end of October to work out a plan to reinstate the tennis and softball teams.

"This is a historical moment for women in athletics," said Jill Zwagerman of Newkirk Zwagerman, the lawyer for the female athletes. "This will hopefully send a message to universities everywhere that are thinking about saving money by cutting women’s athletics. Cutting female sports is not the way to do it. It violates Title IX, which is illegal."

Eastern did not say how it would make up for the cuts or how it would reinstate the teams.

"As we have stated previously, the decision to eliminate four sports programs was extremely difficult," the university said in a statement posted on its website. "We initiated the action to reduce expenses in athletics consistent with strategic reductions across the university. These efforts are part of a comprehensive process to realign our budget to ensure our ability to continue to invest in key priority areas, such as high demand academic programs that meet the needs of today's employers, and to modernize the facilities in which the programs are taught.

The suit was filed after Eastern cut a number of sports programs in an ongoing effort to trim its budget. Eastern argued its budget difficulties meant it had to make the cuts, an argument Steeh didn't buy. The moves affected 58 male student-athletes and 25 female student-athletes, and will ultimately save approximately $2.4 million.

"The court finds that the financial burden on EMU is outweighed by the harm to Plaintiffs if the teams are not reinstated," Steeh wrote. "Indeed, financial hardship is not a defense to a Title IX violation."

Steeh also took a careful look at the percentage of athletes who were female and the percentage of EMU students overall who are female.

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According to forms submitted to the NCAA for the 2017 fiscal year, EMU had 10,417 female undergraduate students, making up 59.4 percent of the student population, with 7,124 male students, or 40 percent. However, in sports, 56.1 percent of its athletes are male, compared with 43.9 percent female. Title IX requires opportunities for male and female athletes to match student body demographics.

Steeh didn't agree Eastern's plan to solve a long-running disparity was actually happening.

"The actual numbers reveal a participation disparity that has lingered for at least fifteen years, with no evidence of a serious effort to address it. In light of this history, it is difficult for the court to credit EMU’s 2018 roster management plan as anything more than mere promises to expand its program … at some time in the future.'"

The suit was filed by a female softball player and a female tennis player.

The softball player, Ariana Chretien tweeted: "WERE BACK" after the judge issued the order.

Chretien played two seasons of softball at Eastern. It was the combination of a scholarship offer and the chance to study aviation at the school that brought her to Ypsilanti, she told the Free Press when the suit was filed.

Chretien, who went to high school at Walled Lake Northern, said she had looked at other schools for a transfer.

"I got offers from schools that had money for scholarships, but not aviation," she said then. "I've also found places that had aviation but didn't have money for scholarships."

The other player to file the suit was Marie Mayerovo, a tennis player, who said if she wanted to transfer, she would have to go back to her home country of the Czech Republic and apply for a new student visa.

This case wasn't the only legal action taken to try to stop the cuts. A group of citizens sued Eastern alleging the Board of Regents had violated the Open Meetings Act in making the cuts. A Washtenaw County judge dismissed that suit.

A complaint also was filed with the federal Office of Civil Rights. The OCR didn't rule on the merits of the case, but dismissed it because the federal lawsuit was pending.

Contact David Jesse: 313-222-8851 or djesse@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @reporterdavidj