Former University of Hartford volleyball player suing over coach’s sexual harassment, verbal attacks

A former University of Hartford volleyball player has filed a lawsuit claiming that her UHart coach verbally berated and sexually harassed her on and off the court, causing her to develop an eating disorder and drop out of school.

Kathryn Capua filed the suit on Aug. 21 in the 431st District Court in Denton County, Texas. In the suit, Capua is seeking more than $1 million.

Capua’s primary residence is in Denton County, the suit says, and she also lived there when she was recruited to UHart, a private university in West Hartford.

UHart spokesperson Mildred McNeill said in an email Tuesday evening that the university would not comment on an ongoing legal matter.

“The University takes all allegations seriously, remains committed to fulfilling its obligations under the law, and takes appropriate action to investigate and address all … complaints,” McNeill said.

According to the suit, Capua was the first person recruited by current UHart head volleyball coach Vinh Nguyen, who started at the university in February 2018.

At the time, Capua was in her freshman year at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, where she had been sidelined for the season by an ankle injury. Although she had a partial scholarship to Cal Poly, Capua decided that the tuition was too costly, so she began looking for other opportunities to play volleyball.

That’s when Nguyen reached out to Capua’s parents. Nguyen knew Capua from her high school days, when she had taken private lessons from him and played on a club team that he coached. Soon after moving to Connecticut, he extended an offer to Capua for a four-year full athletic scholarship to UHart, which is a Division I university. Capua accepted.

When Capua played for Nguyen in high school, he’d been an exacting and, at times, overly aggressive coach, the suit says. But it got much worse after Capua arrived in West Hartford for the 2018-19 school year.

Nguyen began to regularly berate Capua in front of her new teammates, which often sent Capua to the brink of tears, the suit says.

“Nguyen belittled Kathryn in front of her teammates as much as possible concerning her volleyball skills, constantly criticizing Kathryn,” the suit says. “The entire team observed (Nguyen) single-out Kathryn to unleash his anger and hostility.”

And off the court, Nguyen’s behavior turned sexual.

The suit says that Nguyen commented on Capua’s “muscular physique” and asked if she found him physically attractive.

Both Capua and her parents attempted to talk to Nguyen about his behavior, but his hostility continued. The suit also says that Capua told a university psychologist about the situation.

The constant verbal attacks and harassment took a toll on Capua, the suit says.

During her first semester at UHart, she lost 24 pounds.

“After (Nguyen) made numerous comments during the fall semester about how good Kathryn looked to him, she no longer wanted her body to have a muscular framework,” the suit says.

When Capua went back to Texas at the end of the fall semester, two different medical professionals determined that she had developed an eating disorder as “a direct result of (Nguyen’s) harassment, intimidation, and sexual comments toward her,” the suit says.

Capua didn’t return to the University of Hartford for the spring semester, because of both her newly developed eating disorder and the emotional weight of continued harassment.

However, the suit says, Capua and her parents did meet with the university’s attorneys to discuss the matter. Although an attorney said that the university would consider opening an investigation, Capua and her parents never heard back.

One of Capua’s attorneys, Leslie Chaggaris, said on Tuesday afternoon that UHart still has not contacted Capua about an investigation.

“There was no followup,” Chaggaris said. “They never revealed whether they actually conducted an investigation.”

The suit alleges that Nguyen and UHart made materially false statements, breached their contract with Capua and were grossly negligent, all of which caused emotional and physical harm to Capua.

“When Kathryn accepted the Athletics Award, she had no knowledge that she would be bullied, intimidated, and sexually harassed by” Nguyen and the University of Hartford, the suit says. “Kathryn would not have attended … if she knew that (the University of Hartford) and (Nguyen) would treat her inappropriately.”

Emily Brindley can be reached at ebrindley@courant.com.