Tag: Riley Tiernan

Is a Rutgers athlete the next Olivia Dunne? Outkick thinks so

Riley Tiernan is poised to be the next Olivia Dunne.

Move over Olivia Dunne, Rutgers women’s soccer player Riley Tiernan is poised to be the next breakthrough college athlete of social media.

Now, Tiernan has a long way to go to get to the level of Dunne, a gymnast for LSU who is an absolute juggernaut on social media. But it is clear that Tiernan, a junior forward at Rutgers, is trending in the right direction.

On TikTok for instance, Tiernan is closing in on 125,000 followers. The variety of her Tiks (or are they Toks?) are pretty typical college stuff, from dancing with friends to downtime activities and the usual things that this generation does when bored.

She also has 37,000 followers on Instagram. On the social media platform, she clearly has taken a more polished approach to her posts as of late, several of which include name, image and likeness (NIL) posts (such as for Atlantic Physical Therapy Center in Manasquan, N.J.).

For comparison, the Rutgers men’s basketball program has 42,000 followers on Instagram, which is a strong number. What Tiernan has tapped into on social media is pretty crazy.

What this content means for Tiernan is the opportunity to cash in on her social media presence with financial opportunities.

As Outtkick notes, Tiernan recently signed an (NIL) deal with Adidas.

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But what really stood out from Outkick in all of this, is that the sports, news and lifestyle website believes Tiernan’s marketability on social media is ready to take off:

“Rutgers soccer star Riley Tiernan appears to be the latest challenger to Olivia Dunne for the 2023-24 season, and it’s shaping up to be a battle for the ages.

“Big Ten vs. SEC? I mean, it’s sort of what college athletics are barreling towards anyway after this season. Might as well start now!”

This of course is all made possible by her ability on the field. Last season as a sophomore, Tiernan was an All-Big Ten selection and made the watchlist for the MAC Hermann Trophy, given out to the best men’s and women’s players in college soccer.

She also was an All-Academic Big Ten selection, underscoring the work that she also gets done in the classroom.

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Rutgers women’s soccer opens their season with win over Holy Cross

Rutgers women’s soccer has a solid start to the season.

On Thursday night, months of anticipation came to an end as Rutgers women’s soccer began their season. The wait proved to be worth it as the Scarlet Knights took care of business against Holy Cross. In a low-scoring game, Rutgers struck first.

Just six minutes after the opening whistle was blown, Riley Tiernan started the scoring. It was Tiernan’s only shot of the night, but it gave Rutgers a 1-0 lead. Eight minutes later, Allison Lowrey provided some insurance with her first goal of the season after drawing a penalty in the box. It marked the second consecutive season Lowrey scored in the opener.

While Lowrey and Tiernan provided the offense, Rutgers got stellar play from Olivia Bodmer. In her college debut, the Monroe native recorded her first career shutout. Holy Cross only landed two shots on net, but Bodmer stopped both of them.

Although Rutgers was happy to come away with a win, there are still areas of their game they need to improve on.

“It’s always difficult attacking a team that sits in,” head coach Mike O’Neil told Rutgers athletics.  “There’s not a lot of space to play, so sometimes you force it and it takes away confidence. We need to stick to the way we play, and I felt at times, we did that and created chances. Now we just need to get a little better at the execution.”

With a win on Thursday night, Rutgers has now won eight consecutive season openers. They return to action on Sunday against Hofstra at 7 p.m.

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Rutgers women’s soccer trio named Big Ten Players to Watch

Three Rutgers women’s soccer players named to the Big Ten Player watchlist.

After an impressive 2022 campaign, Rutgers women’s soccer has high expectations. Last year the Scarlet Knights finished with a 13-5-2 record and qualified for the NCAA tournament for the 11th straight year. As the Scarlet Knights look to build on their success, they will be led by the trio of Sara Brocious, Becci Fluchel, and Riley Tiernan, who have been named Big Ten Players to Watch ahead of the 2023 season.

During the 2022 campaign, Brocious had five goals and earned All-Big Ten Second Team honors. She also came through in clutch situations with two game-winning goals. Entering her fourth season as a Scarlet Knight, the New Jersey native has 16 career assists, tied for twelth most in program history.

Like Brocious, Fluchel is coming off one of the best seasons of her college career. Last year the Pittstown native was named to the Big Ten All-Tournament Team. The talented senior was one of Rutgers’ most reliable players, as she played and started in all 20 matches.

Rounding out the trio is Tiernan, who has an impressive collegiate resume. After being named the 2021 Big Ten Rookie of the Year, she earned Soccer Coaches All-Region Second Team and All-Big Ten Third Team honors last year. She already has 19 career assists, the eighth most in program history.

After months of waiting, Rutgers is only hours away from their season opener against Holy Cross at 7 p.m. at Yurcak Field. For this talented trio, the 2023 campaign could be one for the record books with more eyes on them than ever before.

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Riley Tiernan named to the 2022 Hermann Trophy Watch List

Rutgers women’s soccer sophomore Riley Tiernan named to a prestigious watch list.

Rutgers women’s soccer sophomore Riley Tiernan was named to the 2022 Hermann Trophy Watch List. The honor comes after Tiernan put together a fantastic campaign for the Scarlet Knights.

Last season, Rutgers advanced to the women’s Final Four for the first time in program history.

Tiernan is coming off a first season at Rutgers where she quickly emerged as one of the top attackers in the Big Ten. She was named the conference’s freshman of the year coming off a season where she had two goals and three assists.

Not familiar with the Hermann Trophy? Consider it the Heisman of men’s and women’s soccer:

“The Hermann Trophy, presented annually by the Missouri Athletic Club, is the nation’s highest individual honor recognizing the National Player of the Year as determined by the voting of Division I coaches who are members of United Soccer Coaches.”

For the full watch list, click here.

Rutgers was recently picked to finish atop the Big Ten in the preseason coaches poll.

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Her sister, Madison Tiernan, was a former standout at Rutgers who went on to successfully play in the NWSL. She is now an assistant coach with the Scarlet Knights.

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Rutgers Women’s Soccer sits atop Big Ten Preseason Coaches Poll

Rutgers Women’s Soccer picked to repeat as Big Ten Champions in preseason poll

The 2022 Big Ten Preseason Coaches Poll for college women’s soccer was released on Monday, and it represented a historic day in Scarlet Knight history. Rutgers women’s soccer came found themselves ranked No. 1 in the poll, marking the first time in Rutgers Athletics history a team has been picked No. 1. It also marks the first time in conference history the women’s soccer preseason poll resulted in a tie for the top spot as Rutgers tied with the Penn State Nittany Lions.

Rutgers is coming off it’s first Big Ten title in program and school history in 2021, going a perfect 10-0 in-conference during the regular season and finishing 19-4-2 overall. Last season, the Scarlet Knights finished ranked No. 3 in the collegiate poll – their highest ranking in school history. The women’s soccer powerhouse made it to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament.

Additionally – graduate student goalkeeper Meagan McClelland, junior midfielder Sara Brocious, and sophomore forward Riley Tiernan were honored as 2022 Big Ten Women’s Soccer Players to Watch.

McClelland earned All-Big Ten Third Team and All-Region Third Team honors in 2021. The goalkeeper recorded 13 shutouts and 83 saves on the year. She maintained a 0.67 GAA in net, helping the Scarlet Knights extend its streak to eight straight seasons registering a GAA of 0.77 or less.

Brocious was a force throughout the College Cup, tallying four goals and six assists. She showed a penchant for coming up big in clutch situations. The junior provided an assist in the 2-2 overtime win over Arkansas in the NCAA quarterfinals, and scored the game-winning goal in the 1-0 victory to clinch the Big Ten title.

Tiernan was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, the ECAC Rookie of the Year, and a United Soccer Coaches All-Region First Team selection in 2021. She recorded 29 points on eight goals and a team-high 13 assists – a new program record for a season.

Last season was one of the best in the history of the program, and the team is bringing back plenty of players from last year. The Scarlet Knights will look to make a third trip to the College Cup in program history.

Rutgers women’s soccer dominates Big Ten honors

Rutgers women’s soccer sees nine honored with Big Ten awards.

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It isn’t a surprise that Rutgers women’s soccer has nearly a clean sweep of the end-of-season awards for the Big Ten this year. Especially given the year the program just had.

The Scarlet Knights finished the regular season 15-2 and 10-0 in the Big Ten, the first time since Penn State in 2005 that a women’s soccer team didn’t drop a point in conference play.

As such, Mike O’Neill was named the conference’s coach of the year as Rutgers captured their first-ever Big Ten title. In fact, it was the first conference title for Rutgers since joining the Big Ten in 2014.

Six players were named All-Big Ten led by first-team selections senior forward Amirah Ali (First Team), freshman midfielder Riley Tiernan (First Team), senior forward Frankie Tagliaferri (First Team) and defender Gabby Provenzano (First Team). Sophomore defender Becci Fluchel (Second Team) and goalkeeper Meagan McClelland (Third Team) round out the team selections for Rutgers.

Senior Shea Holland was given the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.

 

Tagliaferri, a transfer from Penn State, was named the Big Ten Midfielder of the Year while Provenzano, the team’s captain, was the Big Ten Defender of the Year.

The Big Ten Freshman of the Year was fittingly given to Tiernan, who was a revelation on the wing with four goals and 10 assists. In addition to the individual honor, Tiernan along with midfielder Kylie Daigle and defender Kassidy Banks were selected to the All-Freshman Team.