There was no panic on the Oley Valley sideline when Lackawanna Trail added to their lead in the second half of the 2023 PIAA Class 1A field hockey state championship game, putting them ahead 3-1.
For a Lynx team aiming to overcome years of disappointment and close calls, the reality remained simple: everything they wanted to achieve was still in front of them.
"Even when we were down 3-1, I remember huddling with the team after that third goal was scored, and there was never any doubt in our minds that we could come back and win it," team captain Morgan Snyder, now a rising junior at Penn State, told FanSided's Victory Bell Rings.
"There was just so much composure and confidence, even being down 3-1 in a state championship game."
The Lynx had fallen just shy of what would have been their first state championship since 2000 in back-to-back years leading up to Snyder's senior season. In 2021, they were eliminated in the state final, and in 2022, the state semifinals.
While they did win a District 3 Class 1A championship during her sophomore season, the theme in 2023 was that they were tired of coming up short.
"That was really big going into my senior year," Snyder recalled. "My class was extremely talented and extremely competitive, and I think we were just so sick of being right there, just not quite being able to win.
"We had won a championship before. Our sophomore year, we won our district championship, but then we lost in the state final. We lost in the county final. Our junior year, we lost in the state semis – we lost at the end of regulation because of a stroke – and then also got second and lost in the district and county finals. Our freshman year, we missed out just because it was still during COVID, with all the rules of who got to go to states.
"My senior year, I think we were just like, 'alright, let's stop losing.'"
'Let's stop losing'
Perhaps in most cases, it would have been a lot easier said than done. But even facing a 3-1 deficit, this wasn't most cases – not with this team.
"There was truly something special about that team my senior year," she said. "Most teams probably would have felt that pressure a lot more than we did, but I think one thing that really drove us that season was Coach [Tiffany] Cappellano's cancer diagnosis. I think that season we just appreciated everything a lot more and we were playing for something so much bigger than ourselves. We were playing for her that season – a lot."
They proved that in the Berks County tournament, where they beat two schools that had eliminated them in previous years, capped off by a comeback win in the championship game. They proved it again in the District 3 Class 1A tournament, where they again took down one of the schools that had previously eliminated them – after trailing early – and went on to win that title.
On the biggest stage, they faced a similar question: could they prove it when it mattered most?
The Lynx pulled to within one, just before the end of the third quarter, and then tied the state final with under five and a half minutes to play in the fourth.
"We just all believed in each other so much, especially our senior class," Snyder said. "We were a big class, a very competitive class, and I think we really stuck together and supported each other that year, and we just wanted to win more than anything else. I think we got into the mindset that it doesn't matter who puts the ball in the back of the net. As long as the ball goes to the back of the net, we're good."
In the grand scheme of things, it might not have mattered who scored. But with under four minutes to play, what did matter was who Oley could trust to convert on the opportunity of a lifetime.
"I remember I was right around the stroke mark, and Taylor Vaccaro was on ball," Snyder said. "She had it behind the goalie, and there was a player right in front of her, and I knew that if it's not a goal, it's going to be a stroke. And then I heard the whistle go, and you could see everybody's arms in the video went to the stroke symbol."
With the state championship on the line, Morgan knew exactly what she had to do.
"Taylor came up to me and she hugged me right away. She's a fantastic player; she played at Delaware her freshman year and is now at Kutztown playing field hockey. She's also been one of my good friends who I've really enjoyed playing with forever.
"Getting that reassurance and her giving me that hug, knowing that I kind of felt like I'd already scored the goal at that point, I think really settled me into the moment. I spent a lot of time practicing strokes in high school, so keeping a clear head was always what made me so composed, not really overthinking it, and just letting my instincts and my muscle memory take over. Not overthinking it is kind of how I stayed calm enough to finish."
'It's okay to have butterflies'
It was, in some ways, just another penalty stroke, something she believes can be attributed to simulating high-pressure situations during practice.
"Not much," she admitted when asked what was going through her head at that moment. "Pressure does still get to me; I definitely still feel it. I've just gotten a little bit used to how to deal with my nerves. One of my indoor coaches when I played for the club X-Calibur, she used to tell us, 'it's always okay to have butterflies, as long as you can make them fly in a rotation.' I think that quote really stuck to me; I just got good at simulating that.
"I'm also really big on practicing how you play. I feel like my college teammates now, and my high school teammates, can definitely agree to this or speak to this also, that I definitely practice how I play and bring a very competitive attitude and mindset to practice – not taking any plays off or going through the motions on my strokes, especially."
It wasn't the first time she had faced a high-pressure in-game situation, either.
"I had to step up in freshman year, in our county semifinal," she said. "We were playing Berks Catholic and we went into shootouts. I remember Taylor Vaccaro and I were chosen to do a shootout, and we both made it. ... There was definitely a lot of pressure there."
The stakes were admittedly bigger this time around. But as some would say, pressure is a privilege.
Calm, cool, and collected, Morgan stepped up to the penalty spot with 36 career high school goals to her name.
None mattered more than what became number 37, which gave the Lynx their first lead with just 3:43 left to play.
"It was insane."
To say that emotions were high would be an understatement. But Snyder and the rest of the team knew they still had to close it out over that final 3:43.
At that point, there was never any doubt.
"I've always been a pretty poised and composed player, so I think just reiterating that like, hey, we're up, we're good, we have the momentum; just keep the ball safe," she said. "Let's get it to the corner, keep it on the outsides of the field, run down the clock as much as we can. Everybody was on the same page at that point.
"Nobody was even thinking of making a risky pass or giving up a 50/50 ball. It was all just everybody calm, everybody composed, and everybody did a really good job of just protecting the ball for those last couple minutes. And then we finally got it down to that, I think it was the top left corner of our attacking 25. Izzy Buehler had the ball, and she just dribbled it in the corner for the last remaining seconds, and that was it."
The team that was tired of coming up short had completed their comeback, securing the school's first state championship in 23 years after also winning their first county title since 2019 and their first district title since 2021. The win ended a five-game losing streak for Oley Valley in state championship games, following their 2000 triumph.
"I remember it really set into me, I think there were 30 or 40 seconds left, and they weren't getting the ball," she recalled. "Even at that point, if they would have gotten the ball, they would have had to take a 16, run and get the ball. It would have been extremely hard for them to score at that point. I remember being like…'we just won the state championship!' And then the clock ran out, and we all ran to our goalie.
"It was just amazing. I remember our student section, they were all on the fence, all ran down to where we were. Then all of our parents ran over. I remember after we huddled with the team for a little bit, we ran over, and I found my dad. There's actually a picture of me hugging my dad on the fence and I just remember I started crying. It was just one of the best feelings ever, being in that kind of position."
That photo, seen below, was taken and provided to FanSided by Bill Snook Photography.
She really wasn't kidding when she said there was no panic as they faced a two-goal deficit late in the third quarter.
"It was just such a special season. We just wanted to win for Coach Cappellano, and I think we all definitely put everything else aside and were like, 'okay, let's go out and win this.' It was probably one of the best feelings ever, just because our program had come so close so many times."
For Snyder, that penalty stroke is one of those things she'll forever have to look back on.
"Every once in a while, when it gets brought up," she responded when asked how often she thinks about that moment. "It's definitely a happy memory!"
Carrying on Oley Valley's field hockey dynasty
The state championship may have been the Lynx's first since 2000, but Oley Valley had been a Berks County field hockey powerhouse since long before the 2023 team's incredible triple championship-winning season.
As five-year-old Morgan sat in her Oley Valley kindergarten class on Wednesday, October 12, 2011, the high school field hockey team had just dropped a league game 3-1 the night before.
They didn't lose another league game until after her June 2024 high school graduation.
Yet despite how massive the sport has always been in the area she calls home, it was not even on her radar until a few years later.
"Actually, no," she admitted. "I didn't start playing field hockey until third grade. In kindergarten, I was a soccer girl. Then in third and fourth grade, I played both, and then field hockey just kind of won out. Coach Cappellano, I've known her since I was itty-bitty. She teaches at Oley's middle school with my dad; they're both sixth grade teachers.
"When I started playing soccer, when she saw me around the youth league or saw me around the school or wherever, she would always make comments about wanting me to join field hockey. She finally convinced me around age seven or eight. I started and I just ended up really loving it."
The school's unbeaten streak in league play reached 100 during her senior year, and it was 104 by the time she left home to attend Penn State in the fall of 2024.
"I just think it's really cool, and I was especially lucky to grow up in such a small town and tight-knit community; I think that really contributed to our success," she continued. "We all started playing together in our youth program at a very, very young age. By the time we got to middle school, we had already started hitting our stride and had even played with the girls who were a couple years older, which I thought really helped.
"Because we're also a small town and small community, the support from everybody is really big. From a young age, we were always going to the high school games, even going to some middle school games. The players and coaches who came before me really inspired me and pretty much everybody who's gone through the program. I think wanting to be a part of that winning culture and that dynasty really drove our competitiveness and drive for success."
It didn't take too long for her to want to make her own lasting mark on the program.
"The first game I truly remember going to, watching the high school girls, was when Sophia Gladieux was a freshman, and I think I was in fifth grade," she reminisced. "They unfortunately lost in the state championship, but I just remember they were down too. They came back and they had the momentum. I remember realizing and remembering how awesome that moment was.
"Even going to all those games, all of her class was really inspiring to watch. They won four county championships, and I just remember my class, all my teammates and I, we went to all of them. Being in that environment and seeing that environment and feeling that energy, it was hard not to want to compete in those kinds of situations."
But it wasn't until a few years later when she started to realize she truly had what it took to compete at a high level and to eventually become one of those stars.
"I think I was in eighth grade, and my club coach at the time came up to me at one of our indoor practices," she said. "He asked me if I wanted to go to this overseas tournament in Holland. The Netherlands are insane at field hockey. It's like their football for America.
"He asked me if I wanted to do that with a bunch of older girls; I was one of the younger girls. Then at the end of the conversation, he was like, 'oh, and by the way, I gave your name to certain D-I college coaches, and I think that you would be a great fit there and you should go there.'"
Unfortunately, that tournament ended up being cut short due to COVID-19-related restrictions, and Morgan didn't get to go. But the greater purpose was fulfilled: even before she got to high school, she now knew she had all the tools to be great.
"I was 14, and we couldn't talk to Division I field hockey coaches until June 15 going into our junior year. So it was not even on my mind; basketball was still my main sport at the time. I was like, 'oh my goodness – thanks!' It was just one of those really cool moments.
"I remember him coming out to my car then and telling my mom this after practice. My parents – I love them! – but they knew nothing about field hockey. Absolutely nothing! They know stuff now, but when I was little or even in high school, they were very much still learning the game. My mom was just absolutely blown away, like, 'seriously? My daughter?' That was definitely one moment when I was like, 'wow, maybe I can do this.'"
Given her long list of field hockey achievements throughout high school, and the fact that she's now started 33 of 34 games since arriving in State College in 2024, her club coach was clearly onto something, even before she knew that untapped potential existed.
Two high school sports, two storybook endings
But as she noted, basketball was her main sport at the time, and even though she became more and more focused on field hockey as she got older, that focus did not deter her from continuing to excel on the court.
"My dad has been coaching in our Oley Valley girls [basketball] program for 17 years now," Morgan said. "I was about three when he started coaching at the middle school. I just remember always going to his games. I would go to his practices when I was little, just run around. My mom would go to all of them, and I would go with her, and I just remember I loved it."
If it were up to Morgan, she would have started playing basketball even before she started kindergarten. But that wasn't an option her family, specifically her father Kerry, was willing to consider at the time, and for good reason; he was already thinking long-term.
"I didn't want to do anything but play basketball, except he didn't let me play until I was in third grade," she recalled. "That caused some arguments with little six-year-old Morgan! But he didn't want me to play before I was strong enough to shoot a basketball with the correct form, which, now I get it. I'm totally like, 'that was genius – thank you!'
"I always wanted to be one of my dad's players. Once I started playing, he coached me all throughout. It was kind of funny; he was the head middle school coach and then started as an assistant for the high school program when I was in middle school, and then he was asked to be the head coach my sophomore year of high school, and he took it."
True to form, it wasn't just her high school field hockey career that was capped off by a storybook ending. In February 2024, the All-Berks guard entered her final home game with 996 career points, and it made for an extra special senior night.
"Anybody and everybody who plays basketball has always dreamed of being a thousand-point scorer," she stated. "I remember every time I was in the high school, my dad and I, I think we had that banner memorized because we would just talk about it. He went to high school with a bunch of them or coached a bunch of the girls, and so I just wanted to be up there."
Before that game, she experienced something she hadn't experienced much of during her high school basketball career: nerves.
Even knowing she only needed four points, the memories of studying that thousand-point banner and dribbling in the gym as a young girl came flooding back to her, and they made the moment that much bigger.
"I did," she responded when asked if she knew she only needed four points to hit 1,000. "I was freaking out still. I was nervous before that game. There are very few games that I can remember being nervous about, and I was super, super nervous about that one. It was almost like, not shaking nervous, but the anxiety – my leg was bouncing, sitting in the locker room.
"I remember my best friend, Dana Messner, who I played with all throughout – she was on my very first team in third grade, and we were on the same team ever since. She was also coached by my dad for all those years. I remember her coming in, giving me a high five, and she looks at me, and she goes, 'it's four points. You can do it in your sleep.' Just so casually."
Snyder entered that game having scored at least four points in 56 consecutive games dating back to December 2021, and she had averaged 15.3 points per game during that stretch.
"[Dana] really calmed me down before that game," she continued. "I remember she gave me another high five and pat on the back before tipoff. She calmed me down, cooled my head off, and I'm super grateful for her. She was by far one of my most favorite people to play sports with."
Needless to say, the streak extended to 57 games even before the first quarter ended, and Morgan officially had her banner night on the basketball court to go along with her field hockey heroics.
She ended up scoring 21 points in the first half and recording a season-high 25 overall, missing just one of her nine field goal attempts.
"I was very competitive, very driven, and I just worked very hard. I couldn't have done it without the girls who I played with and the girls who I was able to play against, because they pushed me.
"I especially couldn't have done it without my dad, because even if I didn't want to practice or dribble in the basement for even like five or 10 minutes, he always knew the motivators, what to say to kind of get me a little riled up or ticked off to get me to go do something."
'You're not going to get it'
But her path to 1,000 points – 1,059, to be exact, when it was all said and done – was not as straightforward as it might have seemed, even heading into senior night.
"All the papers and everything my junior year were like, 'if she keeps on her scoring trajectory, she'll get it by the end of her senior year.' Senior year rolls around, and I knew that the totals weren't correct that all the papers had," she confessed.
She entered her senior year with 671 career points, including 583 across her sophomore and junior seasons.
"I knew the only people who had the correct totals were my dad and our athletic director. Except my dad wouldn't tell me anything. I think in my senior year, I brought up scoring 1,000 points twice. Once at the beginning, I asked him if he knew how much I had, and he said, 'I don't know. Stop asking me.'
"And then it was right around the last week of the season; I think I had 50 points left. It was right before he had given the correct total to Spotlight on Berks Sports, and I remember we were at practice and one of my other high school friends, Aiden Soumas, was about to get his [1,000th point]."
She figured she could use that as a nice subtle way to ease – some might say trick – her dad into giving her her own tally.
He didn't fall for it.
"I was like, 'oh yeah, my friends and I were going to watch him get it tonight; he's about to get it.' And I was just, you know, super casual, like, '...how close am I?'
"He goes, 'you're not going to get it.' Doesn't even look at me. He's standing, arms crossed, watching the other girls shooting to warm up. He goes, 'you're not going to get it.' I was like, 'okay…', and I just walked away. I had no idea how far I was. I was like, 'alright, thanks, Dad.' I just wanted no part of that conversation!"
But in a small town like Oley, and in a county like Berks, people talk.
"I think it was quite literally that night or the next night, I'm scrolling through Instagram and I come across the Spotlight on Berks Sports totals, and I think I was at around 955. I was like, 'that little? Seriously?' Then I got it by the end of the week."
Her dad's approach to her 1,000-point pursuit is another reason why she describes him as an "absolutely phenomenal" head coach.
"As much as I tried to not think about it that season, it was definitely in the back of my mind. I think he thought I wouldn't have gotten it if he didn't act like that toward me or if he encouraged the conversations, because he's always said that, even from a young age, if you think about scoring, you're not going to score.
"If you think about it, if you were like, 'I'm going to get 20 points this game', you're not going to get it. He really stuck to that, and I'm very grateful for his tough love in those situations, and all the years he pushed me, because genuinely without him I wouldn't have even been half the player I was."
It was a dream come true for the young girl who had that banner memorized, and whose memory of it now includes her own name.
"My parents, just recently actually we were just talking about it," she noted. "A family friend of ours asked, 'did you ever think that she was going to score 1,000 points?' And my dad was like, 'yeah, as soon as she picked up a basketball. I knew.'"
Given the whole "you're not going to get it" exchange, Morgan was even a little caught off guard by his admission.
"I was like, 'really?' And he's like, 'Morgan, as soon as I saw you do your first crossover, yeah.' My mom pretty much had the same answer."
Historic success from the charity stripe
Snyder was really 14-for-15 on total shots on senior night, including her free throw attempts; she shot historically well from the free throw line as a senior. Her six-for-six mark that evening contributed to a streak of 22 consecutive makes, and she finished the year with an 83.94% free throw percentage.
Among those with at least 135 free throw attempts in a single season, just two other players – boys or girls – in Berks County have shot that well from the line this century, and she is the only one to do it after having also made at least 100 free throws with at least 80% accuracy the previous season.
"I got super insane at it," she said of her free throw shooting prowess. "There were two summers when I shot close to 500 form shots, 100 free throws, and 50 outside shots every day, or almost every day. I got super into it, and then I think it was just one of those things where I never got tired of it or bored with it.
"If my dad and I ever went out to shoot, we shot free throws, and I was a lot better. He would open up the gym for the girls, and we would get to home games – and before the bus would leave for away games – like an hour or so early. I would just shoot free throws. I would start with form shots and then shoot the most free throws … Definitely shot a lot! I noticed my sophomore year how much I was fouled, and I was like, 'I should probably start working on these a lot more.'"
She drew a unique parallel to shooting free throws in basketball to taking penalty strokes in field hockey, two situations that demand calmness and composure – and two situations that epitomize the idea of controlling what you can control.
"For basketball, we always shot free throws after doing something like a conditioning drill or a drill where there was more running," she explained. "We were a little out of breath, so we always practiced free throws tired.
"For field hockey, strokes always came at the end of practice, when we were a little tired – and we just had to get through that. I think that was also a way of training everybody's brain to relax yourself when you're tired. You have to focus, just have that little extra piece of focus and composure. I think that really helps to transfer all those things into in-game situations."
Even from a broader perspective, being an elite two-sport athlete, rather than focusing on only one, helped Snyder to become better at both.
"Field hockey and basketball, I think playing both sports has helped me so much with vision, body control, composure, hand-eye coordination, footwork – everything, honestly. My dad and Coach Cappellano are similar coaches. They're very hard and they're very strategic and they just know so much about the game, and they like to practice in-game situations a lot."
There was an element of being "tired of coming up short" during her senior year in basketball as well, after Oley missed out on the 2022-2023 playoffs on a division tiebreaker metric. They bounced back and won their first division title since 2014.
"I think that was very similar to field hockey," she said. "It's just the mindset of our senior class, being so close. There was always that rivalry, all four years of high school, we had the division rivalry with Brandywine. It's kind of like, okay, it's our turn. We know that we can compete. We know we can beat them. Let's go out and do it.
"Our senior year, we had the best start in 10 years, had the best record in 10 years. So we really worked hard that season and that preseason too, even over the summer when my dad held the open gyms. We really took our time and made the effort to get there because we wanted to be good and we wanted to make everybody in Oley proud and really make a statement for small schools."
She especially admires what her dad has been able to continue to do with the girls' basketball team at Oley over the past two seasons, even after the conclusion of his daughter's high school career.
"The amount of time he puts into it with the scouting reports, coming up with the practice plans, everything, is insane, and I know because I live with him. He will watch games three times, four times, in slow-mo, in fast play, at normal speed. He truly cares about his players and just wants the best for them and truly cares about the Oley Valley program, which is really inspiring for coaches, especially being a girls' sport at a small school, which doesn't always get a lot of recognition and doesn't draw in too many players.
"What he's done with the program is incredible; first district wins in the past two years, and they had a chance to make the state playoffs. The last time that happened was when they were district champion contenders back from 2011 to 2014. I think that really says a lot about his coaching and what he's been able to do with the program."
Early on, Morgan had hoped to play basketball in college, before ultimately deciding on field hockey.
"From probably age eight, when I started, until my freshman year of high school," she said. "My freshman year of high school kind of started to change that a little bit. It was always my dream growing up to play D-I something. I genuinely loved them both equally, basketball and field hockey. Basketball always had and always will hold a special place in my heart because of my dad and those family ties into it.
"I love them both. I was competitive at both. I wanted to be great at both. But I think it really started to change after my freshman year of high school and I really started to work more at field hockey than I had before high school. Before that, I definitely worked more on basketball than I did on field hockey."
Unsurprisingly, she did get college basketball offers.
"It's a bigger sport, much bigger sport, and I'm a little short too, so there wasn't ever a lot of talk of me going D-I there," she clarified. "There was a lot of talk of me going D-II. I did have D-II offers getting older, but at that time, I was already committed to field hockey.
"I think it was always my dad's dream to see me play college basketball, but he's super supportive. He said, 'I would have made the same decision if I were you; I love watching you go to Penn State and play field hockey just as much as I did watching you play basketball.'"
Before high school, she was actually more than a dual-sport athlete. Suffice it to say the choices she made about what to keep on her schedule, as things got busier and busier, were the right ones.
"I played soccer when I was little and then I also played travel softball up until eighth grade. Then my schedule just got a little too busy because I was playing AAU basketball, club field hockey, and travel softball all in the same spring season.
"I got to that age where I still wanted to play club, travel, everything. I just had to choose a little bit. My life has mainly revolved around sports. When I started playing them, I fell in love with them, and it's just kind of been my thing ever since."
Tired of coming up short, NCAA edition
The conclusion of Snyder's high school career was defined by the theme of being tired of coming up short – but it didn't stop with the mere desire to turn things around. That mentality and that hunger turned into the results on the field and on the court, even when the odds may have favored the opponent.
Two years into her college field hockey career at Penn State, the 20-year-old Fleetwood, Pennsylvania, native is feeling something similar, as is the rest of her team.
After 30 consecutive Big Ten Tournament appearances, the Nittany Lions have missed out on the postseason field by the narrowest of margins in back-to-back seasons, both times as the top team below the conference cut line.
This season is set to be the first season under a brand-new coaching staff, led by former Saint Joseph's head coach Hannah Prince, and the goal isn't merely to compete for seventh in the Big Ten.
"We definitely all feel it now," Snyder admitted. "Our team, with our coach Hannah Prince, we've had a lot of conversations about our expectations and our goals for this season and where we want to end up, what we want to accomplish. We know it's not easy, and we're really prepared to put in the extra work to do everything we can to be as prepared as we can to come into this season."
It's a feeling she's familiar with from her senior year at Oley, and she's determined to use that experience as fuel and motivation to help elevate Penn State to get to where they want to go now as well.
"I think we are kind of tired of not being able to make Big Tens and not even having a chance to make the NCAA Tournament," she stated. "I think we're all very much very determined, even more determined this season than we have been in past seasons. We know that this is such an amazing program, a very legendary program. We really want to do our best to uphold the standard and the legacy of Penn State Field Hockey."
A year ago, Penn State played one of the toughest schedules in the country, with 10 of their 17 regular season games coming against teams that ranked inside the top 16 in the preseason Penn Monto/NFHCA Division I National Coaches Poll.
While they may not have qualified for the postseason, they did win two of those games as underdogs.
Getting that taste of success against top-level competition has only amplified the hunger to experience her first Big Ten and NCAA Tournament action this fall.
"We all love that we're a very competitive team, and we love that challenge," she said. "I feel like we all feel the same way about those 'easier games'; we want to be challenged. We want to play the best teams in the country and we want to prove ourselves. We don't want an easy ride or an easy road to the Big Ten championship.
"We want to really prove ourselves and show up and make a statement in the Big Ten and in the nation for our program. It's kind of like I said before about pressure. It's a good sort of pressure, and we all just want to do our best. I think it speaks a lot about our program, the character of our team, and how we want to accomplish things. We're going to work hard to hopefully come out on top and have a little different outcome – more winning outcomes – this upcoming season."
One of those two big wins came late in the regular season against conference rival Iowa, and Penn State was at an immediate disadvantage in that game when team captain and defensive anchor Anouk Knuvers was ruled out.
Snyder, who played center back as a freshman in 2024 as Knuvers healed from her ACL injury, stepped into that role again against the Hawkeyes, playing 73 minutes of a 75-minute double overtime game.
Penn State prevented Iowa, a team averaging nearly four goals per game at the time and led by the top scorer in the country, from scoring a single goal.
"I think that game gave us so much confidence," Snyder recalled. "Our attitude going into that game was insane. We all had each other's backs. We were all on the same page and we were ready. We knew it was going to be a dogfight to win that game. Iowa has always been a big rival for us in the Big Ten, and losing to them definitely sucks more than losing to other teams. Beating them is also sweeter than beating other teams."
"We really wanted to come out with a win, and we were also at a point in our season where it was a must-win game for us to be able to make it into the Big Ten Tournament. We were super prepared going into that game, and then we played our best game of the season."
Iowa went on to lose to eventual national champion Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament championship game, serving as a testament to the fact that Penn State's ceiling is indeed much higher than eighth in the conference.
"Knowing that we can do that and we can come out on top with ranked teams, and a team that made it pretty far in the tournament, does give us a little bit of confidence coming into next season. Hopefully we can channel that energy."
Penn State did ultimately miss the postseason, falling shy in two other close must-win contests later in the regular season after the Iowa shutout, but Snyder said something that should continue to resonate within the locker room as they aim for their first Big Ten Tournament berth since 2023, first Big Ten Tournament win since 2021, and first NCAA Tournament berth (and win) since 2022.
"It's good to learn from your mistakes," she began. "But it's also good to learn from your accomplishments too. And I think that's one game where we can definitely learn from our accomplishments and go from there."
For Morgan Snyder, leadership comes naturally
Snyder has started more games and played more minutes than anybody else on the roster over the past three years, and she's only actually been in college for two.
A proven leader, she knows the value of strong leadership qualities, the same leadership qualities that elevated Oley Valley, and she knows that those traits will be even more important as a junior if Penn State is to take that next step.
"I'm definitely more of an on-field vocal leader than I am off the field, just from being in the backfield and seeing the whole field," she explained. "Coach Cappellano always taught me to be the general and the anchor of the field. I have definitely been able to carry that into my college game and be very vocal on the field."
She noted that it's still something she would like to improve on, demonstrating a level of honesty that makes her ability to lead even more apparent.
"It's definitely one thing that I would like to get better and be more confident at, bringing the same level of confidence on the field to my confidence and leadership off the field," she admitted. "Hopefully I do get a little better at that this upcoming year.
"But I do definitely try to be as vocal as I can in the huddles, or if we're having a hockey conversation, just to share my knowledge and what I'm seeing from the back to help my teammates as much as I can. My biggest joy is seeing my teammates succeed. Anything I can do to help them succeed and put them in the best place possible and set them up for success, I try to do it."
Amid an offseason of transition, largely characterized by the aforementioned coaching staff overhaul, Morgan fully grasps the importance of being a leader and stepping up as a mentor on such a young team. She has been both excited and encouraged to see so many others step up as well.
"I think it's been really important, and I think we are really lucky because we have such a close team," she said. "We have so much trust in everybody. There's not really one person; we have so many leaders on the team, and anybody can speak up and everybody respects that person and everybody wants to hear what everybody has to say.
"Having all those relationships with the girls and having that team chemistry, we were all on the same page and already so comfortable with each other as a team. That definitely made the transition to a new coach super easy."
She fittingly became the team's go-to option for penalty strokes only a few games into the 2025 season. Her first goal of the year, which came in the opening seconds of a nonconference game against Kent State, was her first goal since the game winner in the state championship game.
GOAL RIGHT OUT OF THE GATES!
— Penn State Field Hockey (@PennStateFH) September 14, 2025
Morgan Snyder scores on a quick penalty stroke!
Penn State 1, Kent State 0 (14:28) pic.twitter.com/jZ8lVwW6et
"I was definitely a little nervous going into my college strokes, but I was still able to regain that composure and finish," she said. "I would say it's a good pressure to be put in those situations, and it was especially reassuring. My team vocalized that they had so much trust in me and that made me feel even more confident and capable.
"Just really relying on my teammates and having them be like, 'hey, you got it. You're good. You got this. You're our stroker. We would choose you every time.' Having some of them say those things to me really, really helped in those situations."
Snyder became a lot more involved in the overall offensive gameplan as a sophomore, finishing fifth on the team in shots just one year after taking none. She scored two goals and recorded two assists, to go along with her defensive save. Just one back in the Big Ten had higher numbers than she did across all three of those categories in 2025.
"I'm definitely somebody who's never really satisfied with a performance," she confessed. "Even after my 1,000-point game, I remember I missed one field goal, and I just thought it would have been nice if I would have been able to have a perfect night. But even after a great night like that, or even watching back our state championship game, I don't think I played as well as I should have or I could have.
"Especially now in college, we're able to watch back our practices, plus all of our games. I'm somebody who's never been satisfied with herself and I've always really had the want to get better and have really challenged myself to get better. I just want to be the best I can for my teammates and my coaches. I'm always really driven to work on everything. Even if I think one skill is better than another, I still really try to work on it, really try to develop it and make it even better than it was before."
That desire to be better, and the drive to be unwilling to accept 99.9% whenever 100% is available, is also something she believes was made possible by her father.
"I've always been somebody who, if you say something to me, I'll never say anything back, but it'll just motivate me even more to beat you," she said. "That's always how my dad was able to motivate me. I would just sit on the couch or something over the summer, and he would be like, 'you know so and so is doing this and getting better, and you're just sitting there.'
"Then I would get up – 'I'm going to show you, Dad; watch this!'"
Even in high school, there would occasionally be outside noise. Learning to listen to those who matter, those whose true aim was to push her and to make her better, such as her dad, helped her to block out some of the inevitable negativity that tends to come with being a high-level athlete, and instead use it to further fuel her desire to improve.
"I do tune it out. There are certain things I will hear. I can definitely hear little jabs if they're specific. If teams or the student section or people know your name, they will use your name, so if somebody's like, 'hey Snyder!', or 'hey Morgan!', blah blah blah blah blah. Then I think back to composure. It doesn't usually ever rattle me.
"It usually just kind of makes me calmer in a way, and I really focus on doing my best. Even if I am having a tough game, I'm usually able to rely on my teammates to have them calm me back down."
Ironically, one of her funniest memories from playing high school basketball came after one such moment.
"Somebody said something about me not being able to make a layup," she laughed. "It was very random, because I'll say like 75% of my points came from layups. I just remember being like, 'are you kidding me?' Jokingly, one of my teammates heard it, and she was like, 'did you hear what he just said?' I was like, 'yeah, I did.'
"She was like, 'here you go.' She just passes me the ball and I ended up scoring a layup right away. … Knowing that everybody still had my back, they can think what they want. I'm just going to play my game. Doesn't really matter."
'Everybody has my back' is a theme at Penn State as well
That certainly goes for field hockey also. It's one of the reasons why she made the decision to play for Penn State and continues to embrace the culture, one she believes is second to none, within the locker room, two seasons into her college career.
"Being an athlete and being on their field hockey program, the alumni, the team, even the community of athletes are super, super close and super, super supportive," she said. "My team is extremely close. I think our team culture is insane. I don't think that there are a whole lot of programs who have the same team culture because we're genuinely all just good friends, even off the field."
Going from the tight-knit community of Oley to the huge Big Ten school of Penn State was always going to be somewhat of an adjustment, but for Morgan, it wasn't as drastic of a change as it might have appeared from the outside.
"I would say honestly Penn State's a lot smaller than people expect, especially with the groups and the crowds and the alumni and everything; I think the transition for me was honestly very easy," she recalled.
"As freshmen, we went up for summer session. It was just us. There are six girls in my class and it was just us for the summer. We got super close with each other, super close with all the other freshmen athletes. I think being really close with my class and having friends outside of my class made the transition when everybody came back super, super easy, and I'm really grateful for that summer session."
Even after having spent 10 years playing with the same girls, all the way from third grade up through Oley Valley's state championship, she had no trouble adjusting to a new group of teammates in Happy Valley.
"Honestly, it wasn't that much of a challenge," she admitted. "Our seniors and our fifth-years my freshman year were incredible, and they really wanted to make such an inclusive and close team environment and camaraderie where they included everybody. We all did everything together. If we went out to dinner, everybody came. If we went out to ice cream, everybody came.
"I think that is a really big thing of why we're so close. Now it's just kind of like the standard for our program, that everybody talks to everybody. Everybody's friends with everybody. Not even a standard; it's the norm. We wouldn't even think to do anything differently or exclude anybody.
"I think that made the transition, even for me coming from such a small place where I had known almost everybody in my class since kindergarten, super easy. I'm really grateful for those seniors and fifth-years, and I'm really glad I was able to play with the fifth-years and then get two years with the seniors."
It's one of the reasons why, as much as she's aiming to enjoy some down time after the spring semester, she's already looking forward to heading back to school to prepare for preseason this summer.
"[I feel] so much more at home. Now our program goes back in the summer a little bit early, so I will go up at the end of June because our report date is July 1. And even last season, we had to be up at the end of July. I'm pretty used to being up there; I've been up there in the past couple years more than I've been home.
"I'm just super comfortable up there, super comfortable with my team. We are like a family, so it's like you're leaving one family and one home to go to another family and another home. It makes the transition super easy. I miss all of them. They are genuinely all like my sisters. I miss them when I'm home and I'm away from them. I'm really excited to get back to them."
Never once has she second-guessed her decision to go to Penn State.
"This sounds really cliche, but it genuinely is a gut feeling," she said of her college choice, which she made during her junior year of high school. "It's very hard to explain, but I remember I had gone to camps there before. I remember on my unofficial visit I went up there, and we went to a game. I talked to Char [Morett-Curtiss], who was the coach at the time.
"Then we were heading home, and I remember looking out the window, leaving Penn State, and being like, 'I want to go here.' After that visit, I just absolutely fell in love with everything, fell in love with the girls who were already there, the program, the energy, and just the overall atmosphere of the place. If you've gone there, it's hard to not love Penn State, and I couldn't imagine anybody who wouldn't want to go there."
From inspired to inspiring
Although Morgan has two years left of college eligibility, she's already begun to turn some of her attention toward her professional career. Like both of her parents, she is striving to be a teacher and aiming to inspire future generations.
"I don't think I've ever wanted to be anything other than a teacher," she acknowledged. "Both my parents are teachers at Oley. Both of my grandmothers worked in schools. So many of my family members have been in schools or worked in schools.
"I have always really looked up to my mom so much. She's my best friend. I would be super happy if I am able to become half the woman she is. I've always wanted to be like mom."
In addition to her ongoing goal of having a positive impact on younger generations, little Morgan was having an early impact leading some of the older generations.
At least, that's what she thought at the time.
"When I was little, my parents were at work before I was in school, and my grandmother would come over to watch me, or my grandfather would come over to watch me, we would always play school," she reminisced. "They would be my students, and I would be the teacher."
It's not hard to see where her ongoing passion for teaching came from.
"God only knows what I taught them!" she laughed.
"I love going in to help my mom set up a classroom over the summer, just hanging out with all the other teachers and all the other teachers' kids. I was really grateful growing up. Almost all of the teachers my mom worked with had kids my age. My brother and I would go and hang out and we would play in the school. We'd play school in the school, or we'd play other games. I think always being around that environment, I always wanted to do it."
Her combination of a teaching background and an athletic background has also given her a desire to remain involved in coaching in some way, shape, or form moving forward.
"I think it goes back to having really amazing coaches. There have been a lot who have really stood out. Coach Cappellano I've mentioned, and then my dad, and a bunch of my club coaches for field hockey have really stood out to me and have made a huge impact on me, and I'm so grateful for them.
"I've always really looked up to my parents and always wanted to be just like my mom, but I've always also just wanted to be like my dad, or the girls my dad coached at least. He's really inspired me. I've even learned so many life lessons from his coaching that would come up as a dad, but instead of him teaching them to me as a dad, I learned them throughout all the years that he was coaching me."
Morgan spent her first few weeks home on break as a substitute teacher at Oley Valley as the school district wrapped up its 2025-2026 school year, and while she doesn't play basketball anymore, she still finds ways to stay involved in the game. It unsurprisingly includes a combination of teaching and coaching.
"A lot of the boys in my classes, if I'm subbing for a gym class, will play a little bit," she said. "They'll ask me for a 1-v-1, because a bunch of them have older siblings and my dad teaches there, so they know that I played. My youngest brother, he's in eighth grade, so he's also in middle school, so a bunch of them know me because of him, too. I also do lessons for girls in the county over the summer when I'm home. That keeps me involved with the game, which is really cool."
She recalled some of the role models she used to look up to as a kid – and in many cases, still does look up to, even as a college student-athlete.
"There have honestly been so many, but the ones who really stick out in my mind are field hockey players," she said. "One is Shannon Lackey. She also played middle school basketball for my dad, so that's kind of how that started. She was much older than I was, but played at Oley, went off to play at Northwestern and then ended up transferring and finishing her career at UC Davis.
"She was just one of those girls who was so cool and she took time to get to know me. Every time we had a youth league tournament, she would hang out with me or play with me or joke around with me or something.
"She always took the time to make me or any other youth players feel really special and really good about themselves, like, 'oh my goodness, this high schooler who's amazing at field hockey is talking to us and is our friend.' So she was always somebody who I absolutely looked up to and wanted to be like."
Snyder also spoke at length about Sophia Gladieux. Due to the four-year age gap, she never actually got to play with Gladieux at Oley Valley, but she got that opportunity during her freshman year at Penn State.
"Sophia Gladieux is one, especially when I was able to play with her," she continued. "She taught me so much. She pushed me so much. She expected a lot of me, but it was all out of love. She always wanted me to be the best I could be, and those are the types of people who push me to be my best, even if it is with tough love.
"Those are the people who I appreciate the most. I think that's just how my brain works. I guess that's just because I respond better to those people. She pushed me, but she was also one of the most supportive people who I could have ever played with."
Getting to play alongside Gladieux, the fourth-highest scorer in U.S. high school field hockey history, Penn State's all-time leading scorer, and a goal scorer from the 2024 Olympic team, is an experience Snyder will never take for granted.
"It's nerve-wracking starting your freshman year in college hockey, starting your very first game," she said. "And she was always there, always gave me that confidence. There was never a doubt in my mind that she believed in me.
"Growing up watching her, she was one of those people I've known since I was like a toddler, because she had my mom as a third grade teacher and then she had my dad in middle school for math. I've known her since I was itty-bitty. Watching her become just a legendary player, absolutely legendary – who could not look to her?
"I was so, so grateful that she had a fifth year, because she had a COVID year for college, to be able to play with her, because we never played with each other in high school, just because of our age. But playing with her, learning from her, was definitely a huge highlight of my freshman season."
She also heaped praise on Tiffany Cappellano, with whom she continues to have a close connection.
"Tiffany Cappellano is definitely another person I really look up to and I've always looked up to," Snyder added. "Her knowledge of the game is insane, and she's also somebody who truly cares about every girl she coaches; gets to know them, gets to know their families. She's an Oley graduate herself. She won a state championship when she was in high school, which was super cool. Now she's won one as a coach and a player.
"She's just an incredibly kind human who wants nothing but success for her girls, her program, and her community. She's definitely somebody I've always been super close with, and I'm so grateful for her, because like my dad in basketball, I wouldn't even be half the field hockey player I am today without her. She's so inspiring.
"She pumps everybody up, and yeah, she's tough on you, but she prepares her girls so well for not just college hockey, but life after high school. She develops you with your skills in hockey but also teaches you so many life lessons. I'm super grateful to have had her, and I'm so grateful that I still have her in my life. I see her almost every day at the middle school because she teaches there. She's somebody who's super important in my life, and just still being able to have that relationship with her, I'm super, super grateful."
And of course, her father is another.
"He's taught me a lot, and he's also taught me a lot of things about coaching and how to handle certain situations that I wouldn't have known if he wasn't a coach and he hadn't been through the exact same situation," Snyder said.
"A lot of the things I've learned just about being a general leader I can attribute to him too. He carries himself in a very professional and respectful manner, and he is very good at dealing with situations with a practical and cool head. As a coach, I think that's really admirable and really inspiring too.
"Looking up to him all these years, I would love to be able to follow in his footsteps and become a coach – maybe at Oley, maybe somewhere else – just like him, and hopefully inspire the same amount of people he has been able to inspire."
'I'm nobody'
Now Morgan finds herself in a position where she's the kind of role model she once looked up to. It was an adjustment she wasn't sure how to handle at first, given the emotions that came with it.
"It means so much," she said. "We talk about that. I remember in high school we talked about that a lot, before the championships, or if we were not practicing well, not playing well, or just kind of like going through the motions or something.
"Coach Cappellano was like, 'look at those girls up in those stands.' All the youth league girls, they would obviously all come. Then she would be like, 'you're playing for them. They want to be you. You're playing for their program. You're playing to inspire them.' She gave the most inspirational and empowering speeches. In those situations, she always knew what to say. That really stuck out to us."
Yet Snyder confessed it still took some time to really sink in, especially in the mid-to-late stages of her high school career.
She recalled the first time someone asked her for an autograph and how emotional that moment was for her, knowing that just a few years beforehand, she was the little girl handing off the pen to the school’s field hockey stars.
"I was in high school, and it was a little girl after a field hockey game," Snyder remembered. "She asked me and a couple other girls on my team to sign a ball. It was one of those cool moments, because you kind of forget that, when you're 16, 17, to some little girls, you seem like, in their eyes, a professional athlete. That's always how I viewed it.
"You forget those perspectives are always so different when you're little. It was just one of those cool moments because it's something that I never even thought of."
It changed her perspective, and it did so in a way that also highlighted her humility.
"I was like, 'nobody's ever going to want my autograph' – I'm nobody," she recalls thinking. "I'm just like this 16-, 17-, 18-year-old high school kid – I'm nobody."
Morgan Snyder is somebody
For Morgan, perhaps the most valuable part of her journey has been understanding that she is somebody, and as somebody, she is able to use everything she's gained over the years to inspire the girls who are now in the position she was in not too long ago.
"Shannon, Phia, and all those girls who I looked up to in high school, and how they paved the way and really made relationships with us when we were little, I think that genuinely has had a lasting impact," she acknowledged.
"I think myself and the rest of the girls in my graduating class, we all still have relationships with those little girls. Whenever we see them at our local grocery store or at the turf, we're able to talk, say hi, ask them how they're doing. I think that's another thing that's really special about Oley."
Paying it forward has been something that she views as an honor.
"Even if a little girl asks for a picture or something, it's really cool, and I try my best to make those relationships with them, especially the little Oley girls," she added. "I train a bunch of them now, I give them little personal lessons, and when they see me, they all yell and wave, 'hi, Morgan!'
"Even now, being able to go back and give those girls autographs; so many come. I am grateful that Penn State is in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is kind of the hotbed of field hockey in America, so we do get a lot of little girls who are able to come to our games."
Those are the moments that make it all worth it.
"I think it's still inspiring; it's great that I'm living some little girl's dream," she continued. "Yeah, some days are tough, but I've always wanted this and I'm so grateful that little Morgan had a dream to be a college athlete and she's there and hopefully is inspiring little girls to come."
In addition to sports, Snyder has always excelled in the classroom, but she offered a good perspective on just how valuable her athletic career has been and how it has shaped the person she has become today.
"I think I probably learned more from sports than school," she confessed. "You can do anything that you really set your mind to. School, obviously, yes, studying, but to genuinely accomplish something in school, I never really thought that or had that perspective.
"In sports, when I was little, when I started playing, I knew I wanted to play in college. I knew I wanted to be a thousand-point scorer. I always dreamed of being the Player of the Year for field hockey."
She was not only the Player of the Year for field hockey during her senior year, but for all of Berks County sports.
"When I was eight years old, I wasn't dreaming about graduating with a 4.0 or something – or even in college right now!" she joked. "But work toward those dreams that you have when you're little. Chase your dreams, because they could happen."
Hers definitely have.
And in the process, the teenager who once thought she was "nobody" discovered that she was somebody all along.
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