Ex-Moon star getting her kicks

Tri-State Sports & News Service

A sea of red swept through Ambrose Urbanic Field on the Pitt campus in mid-September. Nearly 100 fans, decked out in the colors of the Louisville women’s soccer team, were there to show their support for Cardinals freshman Delaney Snyder.

The Moon High School grad could hardly believe her eyes. And ears. “When I went onto the field, the crowd roared. It was crazy,” Snyder said of her debut game in the Atlantic Coast Conference. “My mom had so many people there. When I looked around, it made me say, ‘Wow.’ I’m doing something big here, playing soccer for a great school. We felt like it was a home game.”

Snyder did not score during the 2-0 victory (she had a couple shots on goal), but ranks fourth in scoring (three goals, one assist) for a Cardinals team that is 9-2, 3-1 ACC, and was ranked No. 24 last week.

And it might not be a coincidence that Louisville’s only ACC loss — 5-1 at No. 3 North Carolina — came with Snyder out of the lineup. She was injured a day earlier when, while trying to head a ball during practice, mistimed a jump and collided with a teammate. Her left eye, consequently, was swollen shut.

“Was pretty bad; I’m walking around campus with a black eye,” she said. “I joke around and tell different stories about how it happened when I’m asked.”

If you ask Karen Ferguson-Dayes, the winningest coach in Louisville history, the absence of Snyder, a great offensive talent as a prep, had an adverse effect on her team.

“We could have used her intensity and aggressiveness,” Ferguson-Dayes said of Snyder, who was expected to return to the lineup Thursday versus Virginia. “She gives you 100 percent of her maximum effort in practice and in games. Other kids see this and say, ‘If Delaney’s putting out that kind of effort, I’d better do it, too.’ It’s contagious.”

It did not take Snyder, the Gatorade Pennsylvania Girls Soccer Player of the Year who led Moon to PIAA titles as a junior and senior, long to make an impact at Louisville. Thirty minutes into her first career game, she scored a goal against Wright State.

She has since added two more (the second came in Game 2), but acknowledges that goals don’t come as easily in the challenging ACC as they did in the WPIAL or with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds soccer club. The ACC is considered the top soccer conference in the nation.

“There are no easy games; each one is an individual battle,” said Snyder, who scored a combined 94 goals in her junior and senior seasons at Moon. “You have to approach each game like it’s your last one because you’re out there fighting as hard as you possibly can.”

Snyder has scored just once since opening with goals in her first two college games, but Ferguson-Dayes said this is common for a freshman. The key, Ferguson-Dayes said, is to stay the course.

“She’s an attacking player; a true goal-scorer,” Ferguson-Dayes said. “We saw her doing that early in the year, and, obviously, we’re at a point in the schedule where it’s a lot harder. I think she might have moments where she says, ‘Gosh, I thought I was a goal-scorer, so why am I not scoring?’ But everything she’s going through is completely normal for a freshman who is playing in the best conference in the country . ... The best part about Delaney is that she’s coachable and she’s willing to keep learning. She’s a great asset to this program.”

Snyder found her way to Louisville after re-opening her recruitment in December of her senior year. She had originally committed to Miami (Ohio) as a sophomore, but decided to look elsewhere. Longtime coach Bobby Kramig, who had won 356 games as the coach of the men’s and women’s teams at Miami, resigned prior to the start of last season. However, that is not why Snyder de-committed, she said.

“I just felt I should look around again,” she said. “I wanted to see what options were out there.”

Louisville came into the picture when a Cardinals assistant, who was visiting a recruit from Ohio, saw Snyder at a tournament. Upon his suggestion, Ferguson-Dayes went to watch Snyder play at a tournament in Florida over Christmas break. Despite dealing with strep throat, Snyder stood out to Ferguson-Dayes.

“Her coaches told me that she was a shadow of herself because she was under the weather, but I thought she played really well,” said FergusonDayes, who has led Louisville to four NCAA tournaments in 18 seasons and led an upset of top-ranked North Carolina in 2016. “We brought her to campus and we were lucky to get her. And I told her, ‘When one door closes, another opens.’ Things might not have worked out at Miami, but she is now at a wonderful school that matches up with her intensity and her abilities. We expect her to have a wonderful career here at the University of Louisville.”