WASHINGTON - Ashley Molz has time and again proven her grit and determination on the pitch over the last four years with American’s women’s soccer team. Entering her fifth season with the team, however, she is facing a challenge known all too well by athletes.

The center midfielder has played 42 games for the Eagles, starting 34 of those contests. She has been named to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll each of the last three years and was also named a team captain for her sophomore campaign. She has also already graduated with a degree in business administration with a double specialization in marketing and information systems before embarking on a master’s program in business analytics.

Entering her final season, however, she has the daunting task of overcoming the challenge every athlete hopes to avoid, and few expect to face. During a Patriot League game against Boston University in October of 2022, Molz’s season was cut short as she tore her ACL.

“I think I knew immediately when it happened on the field. I just knew in my head, and had seen so many girls go through it,” she said.

“I definitely went through a bunch of different stages. At first I just think I was in shock; I didn’t know how to process it. I didn’t want to believe it happened. I didn’t want to think it happened to me. You always see these injuries and you’re like, they’re never going to happen, and then they happen to you and you don’t know how to feel about it.”

Initially, the injury was a jarring reality. However, as the shock began to wear off, Molz quickly set herself to the task of moving forward. For her, there was no alternative, just an acceptance of the injury for what it was and moving on with the next steps.

Those steps included over eight months of training and going through the rehabilitation process. She has been working six days a week with American’s athletic training staff with the plan to get back on the pitch for the preseason.

“It’s very repetitive and it can get very boring, but we have a great training staff that has been a great support system,” Molz said.

“And the girls on the team as well, the ones who are injured and the ones who are not injured, having them around and being supportive, even when you’re on the sideline running and they’re in practice and they look over and cheer you on. Or they see you doing something and come up to you and encourage you. Just having a support system is huge, and the girls here especially are great about that.”

That support system of the players, training staff and coaches was not unexpected, though. The trust and backing is ingrained within the players through the relationships that have been cultivated over time.

From her first year to entering her fifth, Molz has been on both sides of that support and leadership. From her recruiting visit to the campus for the first time, to being a veteran leader on the team now, it has been a process of developing relationships and being there for one another. And while her injury kept her off the pitch, it did not dissuade her from being there for her teammates the same as they were there to support her through her rehab process.

“Obviously not being on the field, I couldn’t lead by example. But off the field, I could still be encouraging and still reach out and create those relationships with girls,” Molz said.

“It's as easy as sending a text, or checking in, or going and getting a cup of coffee. They know you’re thinking of them. Talking in the huddle after practices and just being encouraging on the sidelines, it’s all I could do, but still made an impact, hopefully.”

With the new season fast approaching, Molz is readying herself for this next challenge. However, it goes beyond the surface level of physically preparing for a game.

She hopes to come back stronger than she was before, but recognizes that the challenge is as much mental as it is physical. At a point, it becomes about the physical and mental work that is put in behind the scenes to ensure the recovery process is effective.

For Molz, the injury rehab process has also been an eye-opening experience she wouldn’t change because of what she has learned about herself. For her, it’s been a matter of making a decision to push on and put in the work to get better.

“Physically, I’m just going to continue rehabbing as much as I can and training at the speed and load I would be if I wasn’t injured,” Molz said. “Physically, it’s easy, you know what you need to do and you can do it.

“Mentally, I just have to trust myself and know that what I’ve been doing has made me stronger and I’m ready to go back out there. I started reading some different books about recovery and that process, and then I’ve started journaling and writing down my thoughts and that’s been helpful too.”

With the same conviction toward recovering from her injury, Molz also has the same motivation she has been chasing since stepping foot on campus. That is to leave the program better than when she arrived, and ultimately chase not only the program’s first Patriot League Tournament berth since 2015, but the program’s first tournament championship since 2002.

“You just have to trust what you’ve done for the past eight months, all the rehab, all the days spent in the training room, running and lifting, and all the strength stuff,” Molz said.

“You just have to trust in that and know that you’re stronger than you were before. So, I just hope to come back stronger than I was, continue to be a leader on the team, and lead the team to the Patriot League Tournament this year. That’s the goal.”