Women's Soccer
Inducted: January 9, 2015
Lauren Catania Daly made an immediate impact when she first put on a Lions jersey starting in 2000 and ending in 2003. In her freshman season of 2000, the striker was awarded the All-New York Collegiate Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year accolade. During that campaign, she recorded 22 points and scored nine goals. That was a prelude to her taking home All-NYCAC honors from 2000 to 2003. Daly was also given the prestigious Sister Marie DeLourdes Smith Award in 2004, which is awarded to the top female athlete of the year at Molloy who displays team loyalty and sportsmanship.
Her success continued in her sophomore season when she scored 13 goals, as well as her junior year when she was picked as team captain, played the midfield and dished out a team-high seven assists. As a senior, she repeated as team captain, playing a defensive role this time.
Her name is atop many categories within the Molloy College women’s soccer program record book. The dynamic forward is tied for first in career assists (18), and has taken more shots in her time than any other Lion (213). Daly’s 84 career points and 33 career goals are the second-most of any Molloy women’s soccer player. Her other career record book highlights include: third in shots per game, fifth in goals per game, sixth in points per game, and 10th in assists per game. Daly’s 13
goals in 2001 are tied for fourth on the program’s single-season record book. The name Lauren Catania can be found etched in numerous other spots in the program’s single-season record book, including: shots (third, fourth), shots per game (third, fifth), assists (fifth), goals per game (sixth), assists per game (sixth), points per game (sixth) and points (ninth).
For her hard work in the classroom, Daly earned Athletic Director’s Academic Honor Roll laurels and All-NYCAC Academic Team praise all four years. In 2005, she was named to the “Who’s Who Among American Students” list.
In 2004, Daly joined the coaching staff as an assistant coach for the Molloy women’s soccer program, while she worked towards her graduate degree. Daly graduated from Molloy College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Early Childhood Education in 2005 (with a minor in History) and a Master of Science degree in Special Education in 2007. She worked as a teaching assistant in Rockville Centre for three and a half years, while coaching at St. Anthony’s High School and with the Plainedge Soccer Club, before relocating to Virginia in 2007. Daly went on to become the First Year Teacher of the Year at Maybeury Elementary School in Richmond, Virginia.
Daly went on to represent Molloy College when she was chosen to play for Long Island in the 2004 and 2005 Empire State Games. She has continued to play post-collegiate soccer for clubs on Long Island and now in Virginia.
In 2009, she married David Daly, who played men’s lacrosse at Molloy. The Dalys currently reside in Virginia with their two sons, Gavin and Austin. She continues
to play and passes the game of soccer onto her two boys as she is a volunteer soccer coach.
