UCI Goalkeeper to Focus on Field Goals

UC Irvine’s basketball coaches, desperate for bigger front-court players, have recruited Genai Kerr, a 6-foot-7 sophomore goalkeeper on the water polo team.

Kerr, who played basketball at Coronado High School, began practicing with the Anteaters this week. Assistant coach Cameron Dollar approached Kerr after noticing him playing pickup basketball.

“He said they needed some guys with size,” Kerr said.

Irvine (1-4) has only three players taller than 6-7 and two of them, Wendell Robinson and Matt Willard, have yet to play this season. Robinson, a 6-8 senior, was academically ineligible for the fall quarter, and Willard, a 6-9 junior, has been out because of mononucleosis.

Kerr came out for the team last fall but said it was too difficult splitting time between the two sports. He was a redshirt this season in water polo and will compete for the starting goalkeeper spot next season.

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Kim Shattuck, a midfielder from Riverside Poly High School, has orally committed to play soccer at UC Irvine, her father, Ken, said Thursday.

Shattuck was first-team All-Ivy League the last two seasons. She also plays for the Southern California Blues, a club team.