The UCLA men’s soccer team announced its recruiting class of 2011 Monday.
The group of incoming freshmen is a relatively small one, comprised of only four players, chiefly because the Bruins lost just two players to graduation this offseason.
Forward Reed McKenna, defensive midfielder Nati Schnitman and goalkeepers Alex Padilla and Jake Tenzer will join their new teammates in the fall. They will become part of a team that is coming off of a 16-5-1 season and made it to the quarterfinals of the 2010 College Cup tournament.
McKenna, the No. 41 high school player in Top Drawer Soccer’s national rankings, has been a scoring machine at Rancho Bernardo High School in San Diego, tallying 19 goals and five assists through the first 16 games of his senior season.
McKenna joins a crowded group of strikers in Westwood. Rising sophomores Reed Williams, Victor Chavez and Zack Foxhoven all saw considerable playing time as freshmen in 2010. Rising juniors Chandler Hoffman and Dakota Collins and rising seniors Eder Arreola and Fernando Monge will figure into the rotation as well.
Schnitman, a versatile player who played two years at Calabasas High School before joining the Los Angeles Galaxy’s Youth Academy team, will back up rising senior team captain Andy Rose at the holding midfielder position.
Padilla and Tenzer will fill the holes left by goalkeepers Kevin Weiner and Trevor Hunter, the only two departing members of the Bruins from the 2010 season. Padilla also plays for the Galaxy’s Youth Academy while attending the California Academy for Mathematics and Science in Carson. Tenzer, a senior at Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica, plays club soccer for the Central California Blues.
The new goalkeepers will join rising redshirt senior Brian Rowe and rising sophomore Earl Edwards to round out what is already a formidable group.
Compiled by Daniel Khayat, Bruin Sports reporter.