FILE PHOTO
Peabody’s Hayley Dowd (left) was the 38th pick in Thursday’s NWSL draft.
By ANNE MARIE TOBIN
Former Peabody High soccer star Hayley Dowd is taking her soccer career to the next level.
On Thursday, Dowd was the 38th pick in the 2017 National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) college draft held in Los Angeles. Dowd, a senior captain on the Boston College women’s soccer team, was selected eighth in the fourth round by the Boston Breakers.
The opportunity to play for her hometown team was an added bonus for Dowd, who grew up going to Breakers’ games and also played two seasons for the Breakers College Academy team.
The forward, who will graduate from the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences in May, was the Eagles’ second leading scorer with seven goals and three assists, totalling 17 points in 2016. She also had four game-winning goals this past season and ranks third on the all-time list for game-winning goals with 14.
Dowd finished her collegiate career as the Eagles’ second leading goal scorer with 39 strikes and sixth in points scored with 90. She was a two-time All-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) second team honoree. She also made the All-ACC Rookie team in 2012, when she scored 12 goals.
Dowd became the 10th player in Boston College history to be drafted by a NWSL team. She is the second Peabody native in the last two years to play at the professional level, joining former Wheaton College star Luke Finkelstein.
Finkelstein, a four-time New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) all-conference honoree and Division 3 All-American, played professionally for Hakoah Amidar Ramat Gan FC of Israel in 2015-2016.
Anne Marie Tobin can be reached at [email protected].