Spanish powerhouse CN Mataró has secured one of the biggest signings of the summer with the addition of Australian centre-forward Tilly Kearns.
The 24-year-old Olympian, who recently won silver with the Aussie Stingers at the 2024 Paris Games, will make her professional club debut in Europe with the continents 3rd highest ranked team.
Kearns joins Mataró from the University of Southern California (USC), where she was a standout performer across five seasons, finishing as a two-time Olympian and two-time Peter J. Cutino Award finalist.
A commanding presence at centre-forward, Kearns is known not only for her physicality and elite scoring ability but also for her leadership in the pool. She sat out the 2024 NCAA season to train with the Australian national team, ultimately helping them reach the Olympic final in Paris. Her international résumé includes appearances at two Olympic Games (Tokyo 2020, Paris 2024), multiple World Championships, and stints as a junior team captain.
During her collegiate career, Kearns rose to No. 16 on USC’s all-time scoring list with 162 goals. She was twice named to the All-America First Team and twice earned NCAA All-Tournament and MPSF All-Tournament honours. In her last full season at USC (2023), she scored 69 goals, tied for the most multi-goal games on the team.
Off the field, Kearns is also the most-followed female water polo player in the world, with over 130,000 Instagram followers and nearly half a million followers on TikTok. Her signing is not only a sporting boost for Mataró but also a major marketing asset for the club and the sport in general.
The move to Mataró marks the beginning of Kearns’ professional club career in Europe and adds further firepower to a side that continues to challenge the dominance of Sabadell in Spain and seeks to build on its recent European success.
With this high-profile transfer, Mataró underlines its ambitions for the 2025–26 season—and brings one of the sport’s brightest stars to the Spanish league.
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