The No. 1- and No. 2-seeded teams fell in Saturday’s volleyball sub-state tournament at Lawrence High, but the favorites in the minds of Lawrence fans will advance to the state tournament.

Fourth-seeded LHS defeated top-seeded Olathe South, 25-19, 25-22, and third-seeded Free State won in the day’s most exciting match against Olathe East, 25-17, 25-21, to earn trips to the Class 6A state meet.

The victory was welcome relief for Free State, which lost in last year’s state qualifier despite leading by seven at match point.

“It’s an insane turnaround,” FSHS senior Jenny Heppert said. “It’s the best feeling in the world versus the worst feeling in the world.”

Heppert and teammate Katelin Karlin blocked, spiked and aced their way to the victory, frustrating Olathe East at the net all night.

“Her and Heppert have been our money,” Free State coach Nancy Hopkins said.

Free State defeated Leavenworth easily in two games in its earlier match Saturday.

After Free State won the first game, Olathe East took a 5-0 lead in the second, mostly because of miscues at the net. It was enough to prompt Hopkins to take a timeout to soothe her team’s nervousness.

“They needed to relax and not change anything from the first game,” Hopkins said.

The Firebirds eventually tied the game at 14, and there were four more ties before it ended.

With the score tied at 20, the Firebirds took five of the last six points to seal the state tournament berth. Match point came after the Hawks clumsily returned a hard Heppert serve, then watched as Karlin spiked for the victory.

The Lions won in similar fashion over the Falcons with dominating play at the net. Senior Bobi Riley and Bonnie Toplikar led Lawrence with seven kills each to counter the Olathe South, which won its previous match over Olathe North mostly with its service game.

Lawrence defeated Olathe Northwest in the first match of the day, 25-15, 25-8.

Olathe South exchanged points with Lawrence to an 11-all tie.

The Lions then took a 18-12 lead and never let up the rest of the way.

Lawrence led the entire second game, leading by as many as six points late. The Falcons rallied to cut the lead to 22-20, but an errant serve from O-South senior Melissa Halder gave the Lions enough of a lead to close out the game soon after.

LHS coach Jo Huntsinger said her blockers’ control at the net allowed her team to control the game.

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“Our kids like to hit the line,” Huntsinger said. “They run a certain defense where they don’t cover the line, so that helps us.”

Ken Talcott, Olathe South coach, said the Hawks were stuck playing defensively the entire match because of the Lions’ dominating play up front.

“We didn’t pass well enough. To beat that team, we needed to make them play our game,” Talcott said.

It was the second time both teams played this season; Lawrence won the earlier match.

FSHS and LHS will begin play in the state tournament Friday at the Kansas Expocentre in Topeka.