The invite is hardly surprising given the freshman season Ashley has had. The defender started all 21 matches as a freshman, playing the second most minutes on the team and garnering three assists. She was named to the Atlantic Coast Conference’s all-freshman team. TopDrawerSoccer, which covers high school and college soccer nationwide, picked her for its Freshman Best XI first team.
And the freshman season is perhaps also not surprisingly given the good feet she has displayed since she started playing club soccer at age 7 and running track at VHS. Despite suffering a severe knee injury playing for the Match Fit Colchesters club team in November 2013 and missing the entire 2013-2014 VHS track season, Ashley roared back senior year, winning the 400m and 800m for VHS at both the Essex County Championships and the North Jersey, Section 1 Group 1 Championships and breaking multiple Verona track records. Ashley, who played on VHS’s Section 1 Group 1 soccer championship team her freshman year, led her Match Fit teams to USYS Nationals in 2011 and 2013, a National League championship in 2013, a Region I title in 2011, a Region I Premier League crown in 2012 and garnered four New Jersey State Cup championships.
