This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Villa's Trogele Sees Penn State Career End

Lady Lions fall in NCAAs, but the former Hurricane enjoyed four successful years in State College.

 The last shot of Julia Trogele's collegiate basketball career was one she hoped she would never have to take.

With Penn State trailing DePaul, 75-73, Monday night in the second round of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament, the clock was quickly approaching 0:00 as Trogele dribbled to mid court. She fired off a desperation three-point attempt and quietly watched as the ball missed its target.

The shot ended not only the Nittany Lions' season, but also Trogele's four years with the PSU team.

Find out what's happening in Malvernwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Final games are always hard, no matter what level. Only one team is left to celebrate when everything is over. But Trogele has accomplished much to be happy about since graduating from Villa Maria Academy and moving on to a tremendous career for the Lions.

Penn State went 25-10 this season, largely due to Trogele's contribution. In Monday's game, when she scored 14 points, she surpassed 800 points for her career and scored double figures for the 15th time this season.

Find out what's happening in Malvernwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Along with her 327 points for 2010-11—80 of which came from 97 attempts from the foul line—she also grabbed 242 rebounds with 177 coming on defense, while starting all 35 games. And not all her contributions showed up in the box score.

"Even if she's not filling out the stat sheet, she's probably doing things that are helping us get into the right position to make the plays offensively and defensively that we need to make," said Penn State head coach Coquese Washington after the loss to DePaul. "That's her experience and her leadership; she's just invaluable."

Success has always been part of Trogele's game. As a senior at Villa Maria in 2007, she averaged 18 points a game and 11 rebounds. The Hurricanes made it to the PIAA AAA state final—ironically at Penn State—with a 25-8 record but lost. Her career totals at Villa included 1,325 points and 856 rebounds for four seasons.

For two summers, she played for the Under 20 National Team in Germany where she averaged 13 points a game, where she was born. Both her parents, Uta and Ulrich, also played for the German National Team, and Ulrich was a member of the German team in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics.

As a freshman Lady Lion, she had a 95 percent free throw shooting average and was fourth among Big Ten rookies in blocked shots. Her first start was against Michigan State on Feb. 17, 2008, and her contribution included 10 rebounds and three blocked shots. Her sophomore season, as a Big Ten All-Academic selection, she was 13th in the conference in field goal percentage.

Her junior year, Trogele was fifth in the Big Ten in free throw percentage and 11th in rebounding while again being an All-Academic pick.

In the season that just concluded, the Lady Lions were 11-5 in the Big Ten. Trogele was seventh in the conference in rebounding, sixth in freethrow percentage (82.5 percent), eighth in steals (66) and sixth in defensive rebounds (177).

After the game Monday night, Trogele summed up her feelings.

"I just want to thank everybody that is associated with Penn State basketball—all the fans, all the alumni, my teammates, my coaches, coach Coquese—for believing in me," she said.

"I'm proud to have been a Lady Lion."

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Malvern