FREDERICTON -- A new ruling has found that the University of New Brunswick discriminated on the basis of sex when it eliminated its varsity women's hockey team.

The 105-page decision from the Labour and Employment Board, released Wednesday in Fredericton, orders the university to reinstate the program in time for the 2017-18 season.

The complainant in the case, Sylvia Dooley, says she's elated with the ruling, though it could be appealed.

"I'm absolutely shaking reading (the decision), just knowing that it has been almost eight years waiting for it and knowing what I think the decision should be, and then seeing it in writing is just indescribable," Dooley said in an interview from St. John's, N.L., where she now lives.

She had been fighting to have the women's team reinstated as a varsity squad since 2009, a year after the team was stripped of its funding and downgraded to a competitive sports club.

Dooley, who was known as Sylvia Bryson when she played for the team, alleged that the decision to relegate the women's team constituted discrimination on the basis of their sex.

The university argued that shortening the list of varsity sports was based on how it spent its funds and said it did not have an obligation to provide particular sports, adding that the school doesn't have a rugby team for men.

But in his decision, board chairman Robert Breen agreed with Bryson.

"The Board is satisfied that: (i) the Complainant was a member of a group with a personal characteristic protected from discrimination under the Code; (ii) the Complainant Bryson has shown that she experienced adverse impacts with respect to UNB Varsity Athletics service available to the eligible UNB student public; and (iii) her protected characteristic of sex was a factor in these adverse impacts," he wrote.

Dooley said she understands that universities don't have unlimited funding for sports programs, but when changes need to be made that they are made in a manner that is transparent and fair to everybody involved.

She said it's frustrating to know there were people at the university who didn't know that what they were doing was discriminatory.

"You have a lot of people involved who honestly thought 'This is how it's always been,' or for different reasons didn't think they were doing anything wrong," she said.

In its decision, the board also gives the university one year to rewrite its gender equity policy.

In an statement issued late Wednesday, the director of athletics for UNB in Fredericton said the decision is being reviewed.

"The University respects the decision of the Labour and Employment Board and continues to evaluate its options while cooperating fully with the process. Updates on the implications of this decision will be provided as soon as they become available," wrote John Richard.

Even though she is now 29, Dooley still has one year of eligibility remaining to play varsity hockey, and she's not completely ruling it out.

"Hockey will continue to be a part of my life and whether or not it is at the AUS level depends on a lot of things, such as whether this is appealed, where I'm living, and what I'm doing with my education," she said.