Tiernan heads to Iceland for spring season

The 2017 graduate of Tech is continuing her professional career with UMF Tindastoll

May 30, 2018

BLACKSBURG - The Virginia Tech women's soccer program has several former players currently playing for professional teams overseas and that list includes, to name a few, Ellie Zoepfl (2011-14) and Kelly Conheeney (2009-13). The most recent Hokie to join the ranks of professional is Murielle Tiernan, who finished her distinguished Tech career in 2016 and has just recently started playing overseas with UMF Tindastóll.

Tiernan headed overseas a couple of weeks ago and is living in Sauðárkrókur, Iceland. Through email, we were able to catch up with Tech's three-time All-ACC First Team selection and the program's all-time leader in career goals (49), points (112), game winners (23) and multi-goal games (9).

Q: What have you been up to since graduation and before heading on this latest trip?
MT: "Since graduating a year ago I have been traveling and playing professional soccer overseas for the most part. I was on a team in Stockholm, Sweden (Hammarby IF) for the fall season and loved living in the city. For the holidays and early spring I was able to be home and/or traveling around the US in order to see the friends and family I have in various locations. I actually worked as an Uber/Lyft driver when I was at home to make some money while still having a flexible schedule to take any trips to see friends/family while I was in the country! I signed a contract to come to play in Iceland in late February and left the beginning of May!"

Q: How did this latest opportunity come about?
MT: "I really wanted to use soccer as a tool to travel and get to live in new/different places in the world that I otherwise wouldn't be able to! So after going to Sweden I knew I wanted to go to a new country and have a new experience. I have an agent who came up with some options and ultimately I chose Iceland as it was already a place that I was interested in seeing and living."

Q: You’ve been there a couple weeks, how’s the transition going?
MT: "The transition hasn't been too rough as I had practice with my experience in Sweden. I am the only international player on the team and Icelandic is an extremely difficult language so I often don't know what is going on, so having a lot of patience helps! The town I am living in is tiny (about 2,500 people) but it has beautiful views that more than make up for the small size. I also have an old teammate from my club days playing for a team in Reykjavik, so we have been able to hangout and explore a little and that helps so much having a piece of home so close by."

Q: What would you say is the hardest part of playing overseas, and then what’s the best part?
MT: "The hardest part is easily being the only foreigner on a team, it can be incredibly isolating to be the only person who doesn't know what is going on and that can't participate in conversations. The best part is getting to travel the world and see new places and getting paid to do it. I'll never have the opportunity to get paid to live in Iceland or Stockholm for five months again, and I'm so thankful I have had these opportunities. Both countries have been amazing."

Q: You’ve been playing your entire career with cystic fibrosis. First, how exciting was it to see the team still involved with the Walk in Roanoke this past spring, and how has that been moving forward with professional teams?
MT: "It's awesome and heartwarming to see the team continue to support great strides through the walk in Roanoke. It means a lot to me and even more to my family, I'm forever grateful for the people I met in Blacksburg and through VTWS. As far as the CF and professional soccer goes... it’s been pretty easy to manage in comparison to college. I have a lot more free time then I did when playing at Tech so I can keep on top of my treatments, the weather is nowhere near as hot as Blacksburg in August so dehydration has been much easier to avoid. I purposely chose Scandinavian countries because the climates appealed to me so much and the schedules are not so rigorous so I have more time to recover in between."

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