MCC Volleyball begins season Friday
Coach Hayley Kobza begins her 10th year heading the McCook Community College volleyball program when the Lady Indians travel to North Platte Friday for a season-opening tournament. One week later, MCC hosts a three-day, 11-team field at the MCC Labor Day Weekend Tournament.
This year’s roster includes three returners and 13 newcomers. The Lady Indians will have four straight weekends of non-conference tournaments to be ready when Region IX play starts at home Sept. 19.
“Despite only having three returners, I think we’re going to be a team that will have more weapons than past years, with a little more depth too,” said Kobza.
In her 10 years at McCook, Kobza’s career mark is 176-137 with a .562 winning percentage. Her teams have posted at least 20 wins in eight of the past nine seasons. (MCC went 17-12 in the Covid-19 shortened year).
THIS YEAR MARKS a new look to the schedule and to the region with the dissolution of the Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference. Former NCCAC members North Platte and Southeast Community College move up to join MCC in Region IX’s top division, Division I. The remaining NCCAC school, Central Community College (Columbus) remained a D2 school and joined the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference and will compete in Region 11.
D1 schools can offer full athletic scholarships covering tuition, fees, room and board while D2 schools are limited to partial scholarships covering tuition, fees, but not room and board. The transition for North Platte and Southeast to D1 status means going from a three-team region to one with 15 schools.
The Knights and Bobcats will compete with McCook in the Region IX South Division along with Lamar, Northeastern Junior College, Otero, Trinidad State and Western Nebraska.
The North Division of Region IX remains at the seven Wyoming schools: Casper College, Central Wyoming, Eastern Wyoming, Gillette College, Laramie County Community College, Northwest College and Western Wyoming.
There is also a change in the post-season tournament with only the top four teams in each division advancing to the eight-team Region IX Tournament to be held Nov. 5-8 in Scottsbluff.
THREE SOPHOMORES and a junior college transfer will lead the 2025 version of MCC. They include, outside hitters Charlee Russick, Audrey Holm, setter Megan Walker and Paulina Fister, a Polish transfer from Vincennes University in Indiana.
“Our returners all came back stronger and ready to step up into bigger roles,” said Kobza.
Russick, (5-8, Berthoud, Colo.) was third on the team last season with 225 kills in 35 matches. She also had 213 digs and 31 total blocks. She had nine matches with double-digit kills with a season-best 15 twice. Six times she had matches with double-digit digs including a season-best 17 against Seward County last August.
Holm (5-9, Paxton) appeared in 23 matches her freshman season with 42 digs, 27 kills, 19 service aces and 10 total blocks. Her best match came Aug. 31 when she had 12 kills and 10 digs against Fort Scott.
Walker, (5-7, Haxtun, Colo.) led the Lady Indians in set assists as a freshman with 562. She played in 30 matches and led the team with 40 service aces to go along with 165 digs, 29 total blocks and 17 kills. She had four matches of double-digit digs with two matches of 13.
Fister, is a 5-9 outside/opposite hitter from Tuszyn, Poland. She started 31 matches last year at Vincennes (an NJCAA D1 school in Indiana) that won its fourth straight regional title with a 30-13 record. She had 347 digs, 144 kills and 32 blocks for the Trailblazers after a decorated high school career, which included time on the Polish U20 National Team.
THE FRESHMEN: Joining Russick, Holm and Fister on the outside are: Shana Muller (5-6, Gretz-Armainvilliers, France), Anna Richardson (5-10, Worland, Wyo.), and Peightan Swanson (5-9, Severance, Colo.). Stefany Garcia, (5-9, Cochabamba, Bolivia) arrived on campus in January and will be a right-side hitter.
Joining Walker in the setters group are: Libby Cole (5-7, Grant), Landree McNair (5-8, Imperial) and Zoe Mulholland (5-10, Lander, Wyo.).
Defensive specialists this season will be Allie Rohde (5-4, Sumner) and Brooke Nelson (5-4, Berthoud, Colo.).
Middle blockers include: Bobbi Starkebaum (6-0, Haxtun, Colo.), Meltem Taspinar (5-11, Istanbul, Turkey) and Leila Young (5-10, Amarillo, Texas).
“Even though we have a lot of new players it’s given them an opportunity to immediately step into more prominent roles whether it’s in their positions or in team leadership roles,” said Kobza.
THE SCHEDULE: The 2025 schedule includes four top 20 ranked opponents and six games with ranked teams including two each with Region IX foes NJC (No. 4) and Western Nebraska (No. 16). Also, the Lady Indians will play No. 6 Blinn College (Texas) at the North Central Texas College Tournament Sept. 6 and host No. 11 Indian Hills Community College (Iowa) to open the home schedule Aug. 28 kicking off the MCC Labor Day Weekend Tournament.
MCC begins play this weekend with three tournament matches in North Platte. The Lady Indians play Friday at 3 p.m. against Casper College then play twice on Saturday, taking on Seward County (Kan.) at 10 a.m. and Gillette College of Wyoming at 2 p.m.
The Lady Indians are home for the four-game Labor Day Tournament Aug. 28-Aug. 30, hit the road for the four-game NCTC Tournament Sept 5-6 in Gainesville, Texas, then close out the non-conference schedule at the three-game Central Wyoming Tournament Sept. 12-13 in Riverton, Wyo.
The Region IX slate starts Sept. 19 at the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center against Otero College at 6 p.m. followed on Sept. 20 for a 2 p.m. match with Trinidad State. The Lady Indians will wrap up the Region IX schedule at home for four of the final matches of the season against Western Nebraska (Oct. 14), NJC (Oct. 16), SECC (Oct. 24) and North Platte (Oct. 25.)
“I think the region is going to be as strong as it’s ever been,” said Kobza.
Up-to-date information about MCC volleyball including livestream links to watch all home matches, statistics, game photos, schedule, rosters and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com