​  With the National Women’s Soccer League paused for the international window, it is a fitting moment to check in on the Scarlet Knight footprint in America’s top women’s professional soccer league. Rutgers women’s soccer has spent the last decade quietly building a professional pipeline that few programs in its conference can match, and the 2026 NWSL campaign has three Scarlet Knight alumni carrying the torch across three different teams and three different career stages. These are second year forward Riley Tiernan with Angel City FC in Los Angeles, veteran goalkeeper Casey Murphy with the league’s newest expansion side, Boston Legacy FC, and second-year defender Emily Mason with the Seattle Reign. Different positions, different time zones, and different cities, yet, the thread ties back to a single field in Piscataway. Here is how each of them is faring across the season’s opening half.Riley Tiernan (Angel City FC)Tiernan, a Voorhees, N.J. native, has wasted no time getting her 2026 account open. The Scarlet Knight career-assists record holder, with 34 helpers to go with 38 goals across four years on the Banks, scored her first goal of the season on March 30 in Angel City FC’s opener against the Houston Dash, a game-winner that gave the second year forward her first NWSL marker since last summer. It was the latest chapter in a professional career that already produced one of the most decorated rookie campaigns in the league with a 2025 NWSL Rookie of the Month nod for April after a stretch of five goals in five matches, and a two-year contract with an option for 2027 that she earned the hard way after the NWSL eliminated its college draft.The 2026 version of Tiernan looks like an evolution of the 2025 model, with fewer of the surprise-attack moments that defined her rookie year, more of the field-stretching forward play that drew double teams to her at Yurcak Field. A four-time United Soccer Coaches All-Region pick and four-time All-Big Ten honoree at Rutgers, including Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2021, she helped lead the Scarlet Knights to four consecutive NCAA Tournament berths, two Big Ten Tournament Championship Game appearances, and an undefeated Big Ten title in 2021, the first in Rutgers Athletics history, on the way to the College Cup that fall. The relentless motor that defined her college game has been translated cleanly, so has the production.Casey Murphy (Boston Legacy FC)Murphy’s 2026 may be the most consequential of the three. The Bridgewater, N.J. native and Bridgewater-Raritan product is the No. 1 goalkeeper for Boston Legacy FC, the NWSL’s new expansion club that launched its inaugural campaign this spring. She signed with Boston in December through the 2029 season, a five-year commitment with a mutual option for 2030, after declining to re-sign with the North Carolina Courage, where she had been the starter since the 2021 season.      ​Read More