Free State's Kelsey Allen (7) sets the ball. Allen and the Firebirds celebrated senior night by going 2-1 at their home quadrangular Tuesday at Free State.

“Grey’s Anatomy” and post-practice dancing may have saved Free State High’s volleyball season.

The Firebirds started the season red-hot, winning 13 of their first 15, before they hit a mid-season lull that left players questioning how good the team really was.

Luckily for the Firebirds, before they took the floor for their home quad Tuesday night, their team chemistry put an end to the murky inconsistency that plagued them during a 7-12 stretch.

The players, who often get together to go see a movie, go bowling or watch their favorite television hospital drama, were asked by coach Nancy Hopkins to get even closer at Monday’s practice. That meant more high-fives, hugs, compliments … and dancing.

“At the end we put on some music and all danced together, just kind of loosened up,” senior middle blocker Brooke Carter said.

The bonding paid off for Free State as it took two of three matches to end the regular season with a record of 22-15.

Senior Melanie Chaussee said the team’s closeness had made it successful.

“We have so much chemistry and that’s key for us,” she said. “We’ve just got to work together like we did tonight. We were talking, and it was there. The love was there.”

Carter said the love was fleeting at times during the team’s bad stretch.

“Through the middle part of the season we lost it a little bit, we weren’t sure what was going on, and this last practice we had a big bonding experience, and we just need to recognize that we love each other and we want to do this for each other,” Carter said moments after fighting off lingering tears from Senior Night.

What all of FSHS’s five seniors – Kelsey Allen, Carter, Chaussee, Ali McDermott and Alyx Glover – really want to do is lead the team to the state tournament.

“Being a senior who has gone through two years of seeing sub-state and then the end of the season, we want it even more,” Carter said.

FSHS will play in 6A sub-state competition Saturday at Olathe South. If the Firebirds are to advance, they will have to play like they did during the first two matches Tuesday when they defeated Topeka, 25-12, 25-19, and knocked off Tonganoxie in three games, 25-11, 25-27, 25-14.

“Free State’s a good team,” Tonganoxie coach Brandon Parker said, “but we expect to come in and win. We didn’t play our best, but to give them credit, Free State played really well.”

The Firebirds didn’t play as well against Blue Valley West (ranked second in the state), losing 25-18 and 25-13. They were often flustered during the loss, and Carter said they can’t do that at sub-state.

“We need to be able to pick it up when we have tough competition and it means something,” Carter said. “We realize how important it is for us to move on past that point and be able to play hard during the important games.”

Although she wasn’t making any excuses for losing to BVW, Hopkins said facing the dominant Jaguars might have been too much for the Firebirds on an emotional night.

“We knew we had to be playing our best game against them, and we didn’t,” she said. “A lot of things are going on other than the game with senior night.”

As the team prepares for Saturday’s sub-state, Hopkins said the players will work on consistency, defense and swinging hard. She said the Firebirds also will have to pass well, something they didn’t do against BVW, this weekend in order to be successful.

And “have the right team show up,” Hopkins joked.

Carter thinks the right Firebirds will be in uniform Saturday.

“Girls have a tendency to bring their feelings onto the court, and if we have good feelings for each other and we like each other, that’s how we’re going to be on the court,” she said.