By John Ostapowicz
Junior Justine Appolonia is a mainstay of the Youngstown State University women’s soccer team. She has worn the number three since her sophomore season.
She is currently working toward her Bachelor’s degree in mathematics and hails from West Newton, Pennsylvania.
Appolonia attended Yough Senior High School where she was a four-year letter winner and spent one year as a captain on the women’s soccer team.
In her senior season at Yough, she totaled 32 goals and logged 21 assists. In her career, she accumulated 117 career goals which is the all-time record at Yough Senior.
Throughout her four seasons, Appolonia was a four-time All-Section and All-Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League selection. She was also named the Mon-Valley Independent Player of the Year her sophomore year of high school.
Coming into her collegiate freshman season, she appeared and started in eight matches, taking four shots against Horizon League opponents.
In Appolonia’s sophomore season, she made a massive leap by appearing in all 18 matches and made 16 starts. She was credited with an assist in a 1-0 win over Northern Kentucky University. She took nine shots along with six on goal to finish out the season.
To kick off her junior season, Appolonia has played in all nine games for the Penguins this season, starting four and logging 396 minutes. So far, she has three shots to go along with one shot on goal.
With the bye week in full swing for Youngstown State, Appolonia looks to continue her standout season after coming off of a tie against the University of Wisconsin-Milwakuee and face off against the University of Wisconsin- Green Bay.
“Playing them at home and the off week will be really nice, as we are starting to get some heavy legs and some tired girls,” Appolonia said.
At Farmers National Bank Field the Penguins are 2-2-1. Appoloina knows the key to success is the ability to capitalize on the home-field advantage.
“We’ve been doing very well at home, so hopefully that continues also,” Appolonia said.
With six games left for the Penguins, Appolonia looks to add a goal, putting an exclamation mark on her season.