Scott City sisters celebrate state title victory in last volleyball match together

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- As her sister Brooke Simpson was handed the state championship trophy Saturday, Mikah Simpson stood at the end of a line of Scott City players with her right arm stretched above her head, one finger up to denote the Rams' place in Class 2 volleyball.

Then she quickly used both hands to wipe tears from her eyes.

The little sister had just played the best volleyball match of her life in the biggest volleyball match of her life.

"I knew this could be the last," Mikah said with tears still in her eyes long after the match ended. "I'm not saying it's going to be the last time, but I knew my sister's a senior. It's the last game I'm ever going to play with her.

"I'm sorry I'm crying."

That thought had been weighing heavily on Mikah's mind Saturday.

"I knew that I had to leave everything on the floor," she said. "Every serve I acted like it was game point. Every serve."

Mikah had a team-high 10 kills against Hermann in the title match Saturday. The Bearcats could not find a way to stop the sophomore on the outside, and no one was happier to see that than her sister Brooke.

"That's what we want for each other," Brooke said. "We want each other to do great things in life. This is our last game to play together, so it was really just great to end on a good note.

"We each had a great game, our team had a great game. It was great to see each other succeed."

Mikah finished with just one kill in a loss to Hermann in last year's state final.

"She has made a 180 from last year," Scott City coach Haley Jennings said. "And she was good last year. She's just gotten better, and as a coach, I couldn't ask for anything better. To see a player progress every year the way she has, it's amazing."

Brooke finished just behind Mikah with eight kills.

"My sister's my best friend," Mikah said after the tears stopped for a moment. "We do everything together. To play volleyball with her, it's amazing. We mesh really well on the floor."

The two spent the morning texting back and forth while seated at the same table for breakfast.

"I know, sitting right by each other, I texted her," Mikah said, understanding how pointless it seemed. "Just so she could read it again if she wanted to. I was like, 'Brooke this is it, this is your last chance. You have to put everything out there. There are no regrets.' ... This is it. This is what we came for."

Brooke said that she was the one who started the texting Saturday morning, stealing a page from their mother's playbook.

"My mom texts us all of this inspirational stuff before games and it really gets us pumped up," Brooke said.

Her first message was simple.

"I was like, Mikah go out there and put your heart out there, put it on the court," Brooke said. "Let's do this, and she was like, 'OK, Mom.'

"I was like, I'm being serious. It's my senior year, I want our team to do this, and we went out there and we did it."

While Mikah will stay at Scott City and try to help the Rams earn a third consecutive trip to the final four next year, Brooke now will focus on finding her next school and team.

"I've had a few offers from [junior colleges] and a few schools have seen me play up here," she said, mentioning Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo. "I wanted my focus to be on my high school team first and then I can worry about myself later. Now I'm going to just take a little break and then I'm going to go look around, see what I like and see where I want to go, but I have some offers. I am not finished."