MANHATTAN, Kansas (KStateSports.com) – K-State goalkeeper Murphy Sheaff has been named among the 24-player New Zealand Women’s National Team for two upcoming international friendlies.
New Zealand will face Japan (FIFA rank no. 7) on Friday, May 31, and Monday, June 3, at Estadio Nueva Condomina in Murcia, Spain. Both matches will be available to watch live and free on FIFA+. Following the two friendly matches, New Zealand will return to action on July 25 at the 2024 Paris Olympics against Canada in pool play. In addition to Canada, New Zealand will face Colombia (July 28) and host France (July 31) as part of its pool.
The Ford Football Ferns enter the friendlies with a seven-match unbeaten streak following a five-match unbeaten run through the OFC Women’s Olympic Football Tournament in Samoa and the two-game unbeaten run against Thailand in April.
This is the second time Sheaff has received the call from the senior national team, as she was named to the active roster for a pair of friendlies against the U.S. Women’s National Team in January in preparation for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The product of Sunshine Coast, Australia, has previous experience as a New Zealand national team member, as she started all three matches for the Junior Football Ferns in the 2022 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica and helped the squad to a pair of draws against Mexico and Colombia in pool play.
Sheaff finished her first season in the Little Apple by playing in and starting all 18 matches in 2023. Her total minutes in frame (1,590:29) ranked fourth in school history for a single season. She faced the second most shots in a single season (291) in program history and the most by a K-State keeper since 2017.
Sheaff carded the fourth-best goals against average in a single season in school history (1.30). Her 82 saves were the fourth most in a single season and she had eight matches with five or more saves and was second in the Big 12 and ranked 71st in the nation for total saves (82) and was second in the league for saves per game (4.56).
At BYU on October 10, Sheaff recorded a career-high 12 saves. Her 12 saves were the most in a match in the 2023 season by any goalkeeper in the Big 12. She tied for the second-most saves in a match in program history and were the most since Alaina Werremeyer set the school record with 13 against Baylor on October 10, 2021.
She was second in school history for shutouts in a sophomore season (4). Sheaff carded a career-best streak and school record of 416:44 of shutout soccer. This surpassed her previous high of 325:28 in her freshman season of 2022 at Jacksonville.
She hauled in five saves at 18th-ranked Northwestern on August 20 to register the first of three straight shutouts. Sheaff was the second goalkeeper in program history to card a shutout against a ranked opponent, joining Werremeyer’s 2021 shutout of 23rd-ranked Baylor.
Sheaff collected her first shutout in Big 12 play, hauling on four saves against Houston on October 5.
