• Position: Forward

• Hometown: San Jose, CA

• Last Club/College: UCLA

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Glens announced today that Julia Saunicheva has signed with the club for the 2023 USL W League season, pending league approval.

In 2022, the UCLA forward won the NCAA College Cup final as a freshman with her UCLA Bruins capturing the national championship. The year prior, she was invited to the U.S. Women’s Under-20 National Team camp.

“I’m looking forward to playing with the SF Glens this summer for their first ever USL women’s team,” said Saunicheva. “I’m also excited to reunite with some old teammates and meet some new ones. Up the Glens!”

At club level, the San Jose native won three combined national championships with the San Jose Earthquakes Academy, and later, Bay Area Surf. A highly regarded player coming out of Leland High School where she was named BVAL Conference Player of the Year, TopDrawerSoccer pegged her as the No. 33 overall recruit in the Class of 2022.

“We are proud to announce another terrific signing in Julia,” said Glens head coach Mike Sharabi. “She’ll be an awesome addition to our extremely talented attack.”

“Julia is another veteran goalscorer in our group,” said assistant coach Heath Piper, who coached Saunicheva at Bay Area Surf. ”She’s an outside forward that is very good in 1v1 situations. She brings another level of power and speed to our attack that not many defenders can deal with. She will also work hard on defense and make those 70- to 80-yard runs back to help her teammates defend as well. Welcome to the Glens!”