A legacy, leader and luminary: Ashley Moore’s breakout season

By Samantha Clark

Some college athletes take time to adjust to the play faced at the Division I level, while others make an impact the moment they step on the field. Women’s soccer freshman goalkeeper Ashley Moore has done just that. 

With a family legacy at Rider and a deeply athletic background, Moore has quickly become the team’s saving grace, the heartbeat of the defense and the back line’s driving force.

Grounded in the game

Moore first laced up her cleats at the Freehold Soccer League in Freehold, New Jersey, kicking off her journey at just four years old. 

After hitting an early growth spurt at age 11, Moore was thrown into goal, a position she has called home ever since.

She continued playing at the club level until her freshman year of high school, when she began training at Cedar Stars Academy Monmouth. Though later than most collegiate athletes, Moore’s delayed entrance into academy-level play did not slow her progress between the posts.

“I got there late, but our coaches were very good, and they helped me grow as a person and as a player,” Moore said.

Surrounded by athletics from the beginning, with her parents and brother all playing soccer growing up, the world of sports was second nature to Moore. 

In addition to soccer, she was the shooting guard for her basketball team from fourth through 12th grade, competing at the varsity level for all four years of high school. 

With this multi-sport upbringing, Moore discovered her passions for fitness and a healthy lifestyle, developing qualities and skills that serve as the foundation of her breakout season as a starting freshman.

Family ties

Moore’s talent commanding the cage caught the attention of the Rider coaching staff early on, including Head Coach Drayson Hounsome and Goalkeeper Coach Paul Reece, foreshadowing the immediate impact she would have on the collegiate program. 

Quickly moving through the recruitment process, Moore officially committed to Rider at the end of her junior year of high school in May 2024.

“I have been impressed with all of Ashley’s play. There isn’t one thing that supersedes another. … It is not easy to step into the goalkeeper position as a freshman and she has really grabbed the opportunity and ran with it,” Hounsome said.

The sense of newness that can accompany signing to a college was not the case for Moore, as Rider’s campus was all too familiar. Her father, David, graduated from the university in 1991, where he was a member of the men’s Division I golf team, as well as the manager for the men’s basketball team, for all four years of his college career. 

Her brother, Christian Moore, a senior finance major, followed their father’s footsteps to Lawrenceville, a path Ashley soon followed as well.

“Ashley has always been dedicated to this sport… She brought that fire and determination with her through high school and now she brings it to Rider. I can’t wait to see what she does for this program,” Christian said.

Season’s silver lining 

In her first season at Rider, Moore has reached accomplishments and improved her game in ways she did not think possible.

At Freehold High School, Moore reached her career high of 10 saves in a single game in her junior year, a feat she accomplished after just 11 games of her college career. 

“I’ve learned to trust myself a little more in the back, knowing that I can make those tougher saves… some saves that I wouldn’t be able to make maybe even a year ago that I can make now,” Moore said.

As a goalkeeper, Moore has the objective of a clean sheet in the back of her mind in all moments. 

Due to the fact that she is not on the other side of the ball, she is unable to be the one scoring. However, if a team can not score, they can not win. 

This mindset can often come with a heavy weight of pressure, and being in goal for all 90 minutes, as Moore has been for every game but one this season, can lead to shaky performances. However, once again, even this has not stopped the powerhouse protector.

“As a goalkeeper, inevitably your job comes with pressure, so I don’t really think of it too much as pressure, because that’s just what you’re faced with. It’s just the job that you do,” Moore said.

Moore has been one of the few positives to come out of the women’s program so far this season, facing an average of 15.6 goals in a game, allowing only 1.49. 

She has proven herself as a commanding defender, saving nearly eight out of every 10 shots on goal and protecting the net for five solo shutouts. 

Though, despite this, the hunger for securing three points in a win is consistent throughout the whole team.

“People may think that our mindset right now is just that we’re not going to keep going, but we have our goals and we know that we can get there if we keep working hard,” Moore said.

By transforming pressure into opportunity, Moore has proven one thing clear: she is more than just a goalkeeper. She stands on the back line as the heartbeat of Rider’s defense and a steady, unwavering protector. 

With this season as a prime indication of her influence on the field, Moore is not just playing the game, but shaping it, suggesting that the best is yet to come for both her and Rider women’s soccer as            a whole.