Riley, Verstraaten invited to MLS Combine

Riley, Verstraaten invited to MLS Combine

MLS Release | MLS SuperDraft Tracker

For the second straight year, Pacific men’s soccer will be represented at the Major League Soccer scouting combine.

Senior defender Wouter Verstraaten and senior midfielder Camden Riley have been invited to the 2019 Adidas MLS Player Combine in Orlando, Fla at Orlando City Stadium on Jan. 3-9. Verstraaten and Riley will have the opportunity to put their talents on display in front of scouts and representatives from all 24 MLS clubs. The combine is one of the first steps leading up to the MLS SuperDraft on Jan. 11 in Chicago.

Verstraaten and Riley, who were both Second-Team All-American selections, are the second and third players in Pacific’s history to be invited to the MLS Player Combine. Tristan Blackmon was invited last year and went on to be the third overall pick in the 2018 MLS SuperDraft.

Riley and Verstraaten join 58 other collegiate players on the initial list of invitees. Generation Adidas signings, non-collegiate players and more collegiate seniors will be invited to the Combine in the coming days. The two Tigers are the only invitees from the West Coast Conference in this wave of players.

Riley is one of five players to be included in the initial list of players that were also named as semifinalists for the 2018 Men’s MAC Hermann Trophy, which is awarded to the nation’s most outstanding collegiate player.

Riley, who was the WCC Player of the Year, scored nine goals this season with five coming in the final six games which helped propel the Tigers to an NCAA Tournament berth as an at-large team. He set the single-season program record for points with 23 and tied the single-season records for goals with nine and game-winning goals with four. Riley wraps up his career at Pacific as the program’s all-time leader in goals with 19, points with 48 and is tied for the all-time lead in game-winning goals with six.

Riley was also All-WCC First Team selection and a three-time WCC Player of the Week this season.

Verstraaten was the WCC Defensive Player of the Year and led the Tigers backline to seven shutouts this season including one against UC Riverside in the NCAA Tournament’s First Round. The Tigers’ center back scored one goal this season against Western Michigan which helped secure a tie for the Tigers in the final non-conference game of the year. Verstraaten started all 18 games as a defender and was booked only twice this season. He wraps up his time at Pacific fifth in starts all-time with 56, third in minutes played with 5,000 and eighth in goals with five in the modern era.

Verstraaten was also named as a CoSIDA Academic All-District Selection in November and as a WCC All-Academic Team selection.