Riley Tiernan

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Riley Tiernan
Riley Tiernan during Gotham Angel City Sep 7 25-042 (cropped).jpg
Tiernan with Angel City in 2025
Personal information
Full name Riley Shea Tiernan [1]
Date of birth (2002-11-14) November 14, 2002 (age 22) [2]
Height 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Position(s) Forward
Team information
Current team
 Angel City
Number 33
College career
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
2021–2024 Rutgers Scarlet Knights 83 (19)
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
2025– Angel City 21 (8)
International career‡
2025– United States U-23 2 (0)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals as of September 18, 2025
‡ National team caps and goals as of June 2, 2025

Riley Shea Tiernan (born November 14, 2002) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a forward for Angel City FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). She played college soccer for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, where she was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year and All-Big Ten four times.

Contents

Early life

Tiernan was raised in Voorhees Township, New Jersey, one of three children born to Robin and Joe Tiernan. Her older sister, Madison, played college soccer at Rutgers before becoming a full-time assistant coach there during Riley's sophomore season. [3] [4] Tiernan began playing club soccer with PDA at age nine. [4] She played four years of prep soccer at Eastern Regional High School, winning the Group IV state championship 2018 and being named the Courier-Post Player of the Year and United Soccer Coaches All-American in 2020. [3] [5]

College career

Tiernan started all 25 games in her freshman season with the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in 2021. She helped Rutgers go 10–0 to win the Big Ten Conference regular-season title and then reached the final of the Big Ten tournament. In the NCAA tournament, she had four goals and two assists, including one of each in their 2–2 quarterfinal draw (and shootout win) against Alabama to send Rutgers to the national semifinals for the second time in program history, where they lost to Florida State. She finished her freshman season with 8 goals and 13 assists and was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year and first-team All-Big Ten. [3] [6]

Following her freshman season, Tiernan became one of the first five student-athletes to sign a name, image, and likeness (NIL) deal with Rutgers's NIL collective. [7] She started all 20 games in her sophomore season in 2022 and scored 4 goals with 6 assists, earning third-team All-Big Ten honors. In her junior season in 2023, she started all 20 games and scored 3 assists with 4 goals, being named second-team All-Big Ten. She returned to a double-digit points total in her senior season in 2024, scoring 4 goals and providing 11 assists in 18 games, and was named third-team All-Big Ten. She had two assists during the Big Ten tournament as Rutgers reached the final, but she was suspended for that game after picking up a red card in the semifinal against USC. [3] [8] She left Rutgers as the program career assist leader with 34 assists in 83 games. [3] [9]

Club career

Angel City

Tiernan was invited to train with Angel City FC as a non-roster trialist and performed well during the preseason Coachella Valley Invitational. Angel City announced that they had signed Tiernan to her first professional contract on March 3, 2025, on a two-year deal with a club option for another year. [10] She made her professional debut on March 16, 2025, starting and playing the full 90 minutes in the season opener, a 1–1 draw against the San Diego Wave. [11] Tiernan scored her first professional goal on March 30, 2025, scoring the eventual game winner against Seattle Reign to secure a 2–1 victory and Angel City's first win of the 2025 season. [12] Tiernan recorded her first professional assist and her second goal of the season in the following match against Houston Dash on April 12, 2025, which ended as a 3–1 victory. [13] On May 1, 2025, Tiernan was named the NWSL Rookie of the Month for her performances during the month April. [14] Tiernan scored her first professional brace the following day on May 2, 2025, the first goal and fourth, which was the ultimate game winner in stoppage time to secure a 4–3 victory against Washington Spirit. [15] On June 5, 2025, Tiernan was named the NWSL Rookie of the Month for a second consecutive month after scoring 3 goals, leading all rookies in scoring, and tied for third in the Golden Boot race. [16] The following day on June 6, 2025, Tiernan was also named to the NWSL Best XI of the Month for the first time, for her performances throughout May. [17]

International career

Tiernan was called into training camp with the United States under-20 team in December 2021. [18] After Tiernan's impressive performances during her rookie season with Angel City, Tiernan was called up to represent the United States with the under-23 team on May 21, 2025. Tiernan made her debut with the U-23 team coming on as a substitute in a 2–1 victory against Germany on May 30, 2025. [19]

Career statistics

As of September 18, 2025
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
ClubSeasonLeagueCup [a] Playoffs [b] Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Angel City FC 2025 NWSL 218——218
Career total2180000218

Honors

Rutgers Scarlet Knights

Individual

References

  1. ↑ "School of Communication and Information 2025 Graduation Convocation" (PDF). Rutgers University. p. 11. Retrieved August 11, 2025.
  2. ↑ "Riley Tiernan". Angel City FC . Retrieved May 21, 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Riley Tiernan". Rutgers Scarlet Knights . Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  4. 1 2 Fonseca, Brian (August 15, 2022). "How the Tiernan sisters helped build Rutgers women's soccer into Big Ten juggernaut". NJ.com . Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  5. ↑ McGurk, Tom (December 27, 2020). "Player of the Year: Eastern's Riley Tiernan". Courier-Post . Retrieved January 22, 2025– via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ Anzidei, Melanie (December 3, 2021). "Rutgers women's soccer falls to Florida State in heartbreaking Final Four loss". NorthJersey.com . Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  7. ↑ Vorkunov, Mike (May 5, 2022). "NIL isn't just for the whales; athletically underfunded Rutgers wants to compete. 'This is basically a business.'". The Athletic . Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  8. ↑ Bator, Mark (November 10, 2024). "Women's Soccer Falls Short in Big Ten Championship Game". Rivals.com . Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  9. ↑ Vasquez, Jonathan (September 19, 2024). "Riley Tiernan sets program record in Rutgers women's soccer win over Oregon". The Daily Targum . Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  10. ↑ "ACFC Signs Forward Riley Tiernan and Midfielder Hannah Johnson". Angel City FC. March 3, 2025. Retrieved March 3, 2025.
  11. ↑ Riley Tiernan at Soccerway OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  12. ↑ "Riley Tiernan scores her first career goal to lead Angel City past Seattle". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. March 31, 2025. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  13. ↑ "Match Recap: Angel City 3, Houston Dash 1 | 4.12.25". angelcity.com. Retrieved April 17, 2025.
  14. 1 2 NWSL (May 1, 2025). "Angel City FC Forward Riley Tiernan Named April Rookie Of The Month, Presented By Ally | Angel City FC Forward Riley Tiernan Named April Rookie Of The Month, Presented By Ally | National Women's Soccer League Official Site". NWSL. Retrieved May 5, 2025.
  15. ↑ "Riley Tiernan leads 4-3 victory against Washington Spirit". The Sporting Tribune. May 3, 2025. Retrieved May 5, 2025.
  16. 1 2 NWSL (June 5, 2025). "Angel City FC Forward Riley Tiernan Named May Rookie of the Month, Presented by Ally | National Women's Soccer League Official Site". NWSL. Retrieved June 5, 2025.
  17. 1 2 NWSL (June 6, 2025). "NWSL Announces May Best XI of the Month, Presented by Amazon Prime | NWSL Announces May Best XI of the Month, Presented by Amazon Prime | National Women's Soccer League Official Site". NWSL. Retrieved June 6, 2025.
  18. ↑ "U-20 USWNT Head Coach Tracey Kevins Calls 24 Players To Chula Vista, Calif. To Kick Off Concacaf U-20 Women's Championship Prep". United States Soccer Federation. December 1, 2021. Retrieved February 16, 2025.
  19. ↑ "20 Players Named for U.S. Under-23 Women's National Team Trip to Germany for Two Matches against the Hosts". United States Soccer Federation. May 21, 2025. Retrieved May 21, 2025.
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