Former Mattoon High alum Faith Niebrugge earned several postseason awards after scoring 25 goals for Parkland College this past season, the seventh highest tally in the nation among junior college players.

The freshman also scored 58 points, 10th best in the National Junior College Athletic Association. She had scored nine goals in her first two games for the Cobras, which had put her No. 1 in the nation.

Niebrugge had scored an MHS season-record 44 goals her senior year for an all-time school record of 122 goals.

“We knew Faith was going to come in and be an impact player, and, wow, was she ever,” said Parkland women’s soccer coach Daniel Vogelsang.

Niebrugge was named the a NJCAA region Freshman of the Year and earned a second-team berth on the NJCAA Division II All-American team.

Niebrugge was also a first team member for both all-regional and all-conference teams.

In addition, the United Soccer Coaches association named her to both the junior college Division II All-American and all-West Regional teams.

“It’s nice to see local talent come into our program and have this much success,” Vogelsang said. “We just finished our third season of our rebuild, and players like Faith are leading the way to get Parkland College back on the map for having a competitive program.”

Parkland reached as high as No. 12 in national rankings – the program’s first ranking since 2016.

“Faith played a huge part in this,” added Vogelsang.