Wauneta-Palisade graduate Faith Simpson, a freshman volleyball player at McCook Community College has been named to the all-Region IX volleyball team and was also named as the south division’s “Freshman of the Year.”
    Simpson and teammate Ashley Carson (Ord), setter, were both named to the squad, as selected by a vote of the 13 Region IX coaches in Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming.
    Simpson was second in Region IX in kills per set at 3.79 and second with her .295 hitting percentage. Her 481 total kills ranked fourth in the nation among the 93 schools participating in volleyball. Her kills per set ranked 10th in the country. She also had 56 service aces per set, fourth most in the region, 79 digs, and 49 blocks.
    Simpson was part of a squad that has helped the Lady Indians rebuild a program that went 2-40 during the 2015 season and had just 14 wins in a three-year span starting in 2013.
    In her third year at MCC, Haley Kobza’s first squad won eight games in 2016 and had a 20-win season in 2017—the school’s first 20-win season of the century.
    This season with Simpson entrenched as a go-to hitter, the Lady Indians finished with a 21-14 record and captured the school’s first Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference championship since 1980.

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