Brill/Huang Power Their Way to PSUGA Athletes of the Week
The PSUGA Athletics Department Announced their Male and Female Athletes of the Week on Tuesday and Derek Huang and Juliana Brill both led their teams to take home the awards.
McKeesport, PA. – The Penn State Greater Allegheny Athletics Department released their Athletes of the Week on Tuesday, and a pair of players who led their teams against tough Penn State University Athletic Conference opponents earned the awards. Men’s Soccer Player Derek Haung (Kaohsiung, Taiwan/Kaohsiung American School) earned Male Athlete of the Week while Juliana Brill (Mount Jackson, VA./Stonewall Jackson HS) earned the Female Athlete of the Week Award.
With PSUAC play heating up over the final three weeks of the regular season, both players led their teams as they fought to stay alive in the playoff picture. No team at PSUGA has been hotter then Volleyball, who are currently on a 10 game winning streak, and Brill has been one of the driving forces on the defensive side of the ball.
She finished the week with a team-high 28 digs and helped her team go 3-0, 2-0 in conference play. Brill’s biggest day came against PSU-Mont Alto on October 5th when she led the way with 14 digs in a 3-0 victory. It would turn out to be a historic day for Brill when she broke the single-season digs record at PSUGA finishing the day with 250 this year. She broke the previous record which was held by former Lion Laura Vazquez Diaz when she had 247 in 2014 and, with six games left on the schedule, she will have a chance to extend that record even further.
Brill currently ranks third in the PSUAC with 252 digs this season behind PSU-Beaver’s Heaven Bowman and PSU-Mont Alto’s Melanie Tracey. In her first season as PSUGA’s starting Libero, Brill has thrived making plays all over the court leading the team in digs and sitting second on the team with 33 service aces.
While PSUGA Men’s Soccer hasn’t seen as much success as the Volleyball team, Huang has continued to grow throughout the season and has proven himself to be a reliable offensive weapon for head coach Dale Odim. Huang got off the only shot for PSUGA landing it on goal in what would be a 6-0 loss.
Huang has been one of the most accurate shooters for PSUGA this season taking three shots and landing all three of them on goal. He is one of three PSUGA players with a 1.000 Shots on Goal percentage and has the most attempts out of those three players. His other two shots this season came against PSU-Hazleton on September 13th where he put two shots on net in a 1-1 tie.
It is another exciting week in PSUGA Athletics with the Golf team competing at the United States Collegiate Athletic Association National Championships and Volleyball having a chance to clinch a playoff spot on Saturday. Stay tuned right here on www.athleticsga.com for all the updates throughout the week.