E
ighteen-year-old Shea Vanderbosch stood at the edge of Syracuse’s bench at SU Soccer Stadium.
Her “clunky” black knee brace — which she used after tearing her posterior cruciate ligament in the spring — engulfed her entire right leg. It was Aug. 21, 2022, and Shea was stuck behind fellow goalkeepers Michaela Walsh and Sierra Giorgio against UConn.
But Walsh suffered an injury and exited early. Giorgio came on and conceded five goals. Syracuse needed to make a change. So, assistant coach Brandon DeNoyer and head coach Nicky Thrasher Adams looked to the edge of the bench just before halftime. It was Shea’s turn.
“I just got cleared yesterday. What do you mean, go warm up?” she recalled thinking.
The 5-0 score occupied her mind.
“This poor girl,” former attacker Erin Flurey thought. Kylen Grant, who played for SU from 2021-24, was nervous for Shea. Former assistant coach Kelly Madsen still tries to erase the Huskies’ unyielding offense from her memory.
Shea made her debut in the worst of circumstances. But she left as SU’s No. 1 goalkeeper.
“Once you get into college, you’re in college. Yes, these freshmen can grow into it, but you know what you signed up for,” Flurey said. “Either act like you belong, or you’re going to look like you are struggling. I don’t think she ever did.”
On Sunday, Shea became Syracuse’s all-time saves leader with her 345th save, passing current Everton and Ireland international Courtney Brosnan. The record doesn’t just epitomize four years of steadying SU’s ship. It etches her name into Syracuse women’s soccer folklore.
“The people on that list are professional goalkeepers who are really skilled and talented,” Shea said. “(Having) myself in that list is great, but at the end of the day, I have to do my job.”
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• • •
Blood work revealed Pam and Dan Vanderbosch wouldn’t just be having one kid. Not even two. Sonograms showed triplets. Along with a 4-year-old boy, bringing three more children into their Lancaster, New York, home seemed “daunting.”
Another sonogram told them that, instead, said they were only having two. Pam and Dan were ecstatic.
Kamryn Faith Vanderbosch was born 60 seconds before Shealyn Hope in February 2004. However, in the ensuing years, Shea became the bossy one.
In preschool, Shea — who learned to tie her shoes at 3 years old — often had her classmates, including Kam, line up so Shea could tie their shoes.
“Do they want their shoes tied? Some of them looked like they wanted to try on their own,” Pam asked Shea’s teacher, Mrs. Thomas, who called her “The Mayor.”
“Nope, Shea does it,” she replied.
That transitioned to her home life. When Shea found out her parents were the Easter Bunny in fourth grade, she handed them a list. Swedish Fish. Nerds. Mike and Ikes.
She called. Then called again and again. She had to ensure Pam and Dan bought the correct candy. When they returned, she took the candy, making Easter baskets before hiding eggs for Kam and her brother Jack Vanderbosch, whom Shea called her “kids,” to find on Easter morning.
“Her whole personality is wanting to be in control, wanting to be in charge,” Pam said.
Kam and Shea Vanderbosch pose on the field at SU Soccer Stadium after Syracuse played Siena in 2022. The twins considered attending the same school, but Shea’s dream to become a professional soccer player led her to SU. Courtesy of Pam Vanderbosch
Shea idolized Jack. He inspired anything she did growing up. The three siblings often played with their soccer net in their backyard, sometimes from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Their feet turned black after playing barefoot.
Jack showed no mercy, running up the score to as high as 25-0. He doesn’t think either twin beat him in anything. Shea took it personally. She always pushed to make it 25-2.
“My mindset at the time was either they’re going to like it or they’re not. If they weren’t having fun, if they didn’t want to win and compete, they wouldn’t still be here playing as it’s 25-0,” Jack said.
Shea became notorious in her 8U Co-Ed hockey league for laying people out on the ice.
“She would take no crap from the boys,” Dan said. Parents of opponents called her “The Crusher” and would cheer every time she got a penalty.
But from age 3, soccer was Shea’s sport. Her ruthless drive to win and willingness to take charge initiated her path to becoming a goalkeeper.
“She would always volunteer (to play goalkeeper), and nobody else wanted to do it. Everybody wanted to be a forward and score,” Pam said. “When they’re little, they’re doing cartwheels and picking flowers. But she was always like, ‘Come on guys, let’s go. We’re going to win.’”
“Maybe I was just crazy,” Shea said.
• • •
Shea’s club career was mostly spent across two programs. First was Global Premier Soccer. Then came Western New York Flash, an Elite Clubs National League soccer powerhouse, which Shea joined in 2018.
The WNY Flash has produced over 350 collegiate soccer players since 2016 and held the likes of USWNT legends Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd when it was once a National Women’s Soccer League and Women’s Professional Soccer side.
When former GPS technical director and current Canisius head coach Ryan Louis and Co. acquired the Vanderbosch twins, they made sure to take extra care of them so they wouldn’t leave.
Louis observed a finishing drill with Shea in net just weeks after she joined the club in seventh grade. It was too easy for her, Louis said. In her two years with GPS, Shea always played up three years with the 2001 team. Kam was with the 2003s.
“When she plays, she just oozes that sort of maturity and confidence,” Louis said.
Lancaster High School took notice. In July 2018, former Legends goalkeeper and then-volunteer assistant coach Kimberly Corrie was tasked with finding the program’s next goalie. She watched seniors run weekly summer practices, and then saw an incoming eighth-grader in goal.
A diving save off a breakaway grabbed Corrie’s attention. Then, Shea swiped the ball from one of the program’s top seniors. Suddenly, Corrie had found her keeper.
“Are we sure? Are we sure?” then-head coach Chris Cownie repeatedly asked Corrie.
He wasn’t concerned about Shea’s skill. If picked, she would be the first-ever middle schooler to play for Lancaster, but Corrie didn’t care.
“I was not hesitant in the slightest,” Corrie said. “She’s always been taller. She’s always been very athletic. She’s always been a very strong player. Sometimes you forget how young she was.”
Opponents hoped to avoid a penalty shootout against Shea, who was the first goalkeeper to win the All-Western New York State Player of the Year in 2019. Other coaches jokingly asked if she could take the game off so they could score.
As a senior in 2021, one of Shea’s 38 career clean sheets led to an overtime victory over archrival Clarence High School in the Sectional VI Class AA championship. After winning, she ran over to Corrie and embraced her.
“It was full circle,” Shea said.
With the WNY Flash, Shea’s presence similarly affected every opponent. She carried WNY Flash to the 2021 North American Cup by prevailing in two penalty shootouts.
“You don’t get that cup without Shea Vanderbosch in goal,” WNY Flash director Aaran Lines said.
She was everything SU needed in a goalkeeper. However, there was still a possibility to attend school with Kam. West Point was interested. They could mirror the Cavinder twins, the Lopez twins or the Barber Twins by playing the same sport at the same college.
The two discussed their decision during nighttime strolls with their puggle Jasmine in their Lancaster neighborhood. Shea wanted to go to a top program before joining the professional ranks. Kam cared more about the right academic fit.
Shea chose Syracuse. Kam picked Siena.
“(No one) knows what it’s like to be a twin. I don’t know what it’s like to always have somebody with you to make that decision. If the right school came along and they both loved the school, I’m sure they would’ve gone together,” Pam said. “But Kam’s where Kam needs to be and Shea is where Shea needs to be.”
• • •
Shea trotted down to the lobby of the John A. Lally Athletics Complex to speak with The Daily Orange.
She spoke about her extremely short, unsuccessful dance career and the song “Hot Shower” by Chance the Rapper, which she, Kam and Corrie often sang in the car in high school. She showed her matching tattoo with her sister, which reads “today, tomorrow, forever,” and joked about “talking trash” toward DeNoyer, who was a key reason why Shea chose Syracuse.
Then she recoiled hearing stories from her former teammates.
“Oh god, who?”
Liesel Odden was Shea’s teammate for three years. They even did a special handshake before every game. But Odden can’t help but laugh while telling a certain story.
One preseason, SU strength and conditioning coach Corey Parker put the team through a “super hard conditioning workout” on SU field hockey’s J.S. Coyne Stadium’s synthetic turf. They returned to the locker room knackered. “The sarcastic queen,” Flurey said, took center stage.
“Guys, I think I saw Jesus today. He came down. He was glowing. I closed my eyes on that field hockey field and I literally saw him. Corey brought me to Jesus,” Odden remembers Shea proclaiming.
“I’m a little bit dramatic a lot of the time,” Shea said.
However, when she first got to Syracuse, Shea was a shell of herself. Shea didn’t talk at all. She was nervous about the college environment and unsure of how much she’d play in the fall. It didn’t help she tore her PCL when training with WNY Flash director of goalkeeping Marcelo Moreira in May, which put her behind Walsh and Giorgio before the season even started.
“She’s by herself. She’s in an apartment. She doesn’t feel like she’s truly helping her team. That’s the fiber of who she is. I think that was the hardest struggle,” Pam said.
But once Shea started playing, she became herself. She’d joke with teammates when she was outside the touchline. Flurey added she could make anyone laugh. Then she’d flip a switch on the field. She’s been Syracuse’s top option ever since.
Shea Vanderbosch stands alone during SU’s battle with No. 1 Virginia. This season, Vanderbosch has amassed 62 saves, pushing her above Courtney Brosnan on SU’s all-time saves list. Aaron Hammer | Staff Photographer
“A good nickname for Shea would be ‘the bear’ because I wouldn’t poke the bear,” said Nick Mendola, owner of Shea’s USL W League team FC Buffalo.
“She’s just got this aura about her,” Canisius assistant coach Taylor DiMarco told Louis when SU played the Golden Griffins on Aug. 21.
Shea relishes the pressure to keep her team in games. Nine saves in a 2-2 draw against No. 2 Virginia in 2022 led to an All-Atlantic Coast Conference Freshman Team selection. A career-high 16 saves against No. 3 Florida State in 2023. Twelve and 14-save efforts versus Notre Dame and Pittsburgh, which combined for 65 shots a year later. Ten stops in a 0-0 draw versus Princeton this season.
Her performances aren’t just among the best in Syracuse history; they keep pace with the best in the ACC and the country, where she ranks first and 15th in saves.
Shea will graduate from Syracuse in December to pursue her dream of playing professional soccer in the NWSL or abroad. As her time at SU dwindles, Shea still doesn’t know who that “freshman girl” who debuted against UConn was.
The record solidifies a feeling her coaches and teammates already knew.
“She’s the G.O.A.T.,” Madsen said.
Videos by Aaron Hammer | Staff Photographer
Published on October 2, 2025 at 12:12 am