After graduation, seemingly thousands of fresh-faced former Virginia Tech students migrate to Washington, Charlotte, Atlanta and other hubs of industry throughout the United States.
Murielle Tiernan hopped on a different route that landed in Sauðárkrókur, Iceland.
"Soccer is taking me where I want to go," she said. "I knew I wanted to travel. So I knew I wasn't interested in playing in the NWSL. I don't thrive in the heat, so I didn't want to play in Orlando or Houston."
Tiernan ('17) left Blacksburg as arguably the most prolific player in the history of the program. She blasted the record books for the Hokies, ending her college career as the program's top goal scorer, game-winning goal scorer, and points leader after her final season in 2016. When it was time to launch that next leap to a professional career, Tiernan landed an agent through former teammate Katie Yensen ('15). Shortly thereafter, the former Hokies star forward jetted off for a professional soccer career in Stockholm, Sweden with Hammarby IF where she played for one season.
"I liked living in Stockholm," explained Tiernan. "It wasn't the best team environment, I didn't really form any strong connections with anybody. Then my agent found this team in Iceland and I knew that was definitely a place I wanted to go see."
Tiernan has been on the small island nation for the past four seasons, making a huge difference in the attack for UMF Tindastóll. Her team's efforts in 2020 were good enough to get the team promoted to the Urvalsdeild, which is the top women's soccer league in the country. She joined Tindastóll in 2018 as the only non-Icelandic member of the team, but since then the club has added three more Americans. Tiernan ended the 2021 campaign with two goals and two assists across 17 appearances for the team.
"It can be really isolating being the only non-Icelandic person because everyone knows what's going on except for you," she said. "It ended up working out better than Sweden anyway because the girls were way more welcoming. I made some good friendships with them."
As far as looking back on her time at Virginia Tech, Tiernan looks back at it fondly. She tries her best to keep up with her roommates who were also members of the women's soccer team. Sydney Curtis ('17) and her family had just visited Tiernan for a brief vacation right before the time of this interview. In addition to the camaraderie, she also spoke very highly of how her experience at Virginia Tech prepared her for a career in professional soccer with the best accommodations.
"I realized how good I had it at Tech," said Tiernan. "I knew when I was there how good we had it with the gear, the fancy locker room, the trainers and the Nutritional Oasis. The Icelandic girls are always asking, 'You got this? This is how it was?' And the physical demands of a college athlete are much higher. Here my job is just soccer and that's it, where at Tech we had soccer plus school and everything else."
Tiernan is poised for her fifth year at Tindastóll, and briefly reflected on how her time in Iceland not only developed her as a player, but as a person.
"I'm definitely comfortable going into situations where I'm out of place," she said. "There's a lot of times where everyone is speaking Icelandic and you don't always know what's going on. I've gotten a lot better at adapting to my surroundings."
About the Monogram Club
The Virginia Tech Monogram Club is a membership organization that seeks to honor and engage former and current letterwinners through networking and fellowship events, in order to celebrate the traditions and promote the value of the Virginia Tech student-athlete experience. We seek to reconnect with all monogram winners in all past and present sports and support area students (managers, trainers, and video staff members) at Virginia Tech and have each of these become a connected and engaged member of the Monogram Club! Honor the Past, Celebrate the Present, and Support the Future!
