Olathe ? It was guaranteed that only one of the city volleyball squads would have a chance to move on to the Class 6A state tournament.

For the second straight year Free State and Lawrence High faced each other in the first round of sub-state Saturday at Olathe South.

This year, the Firebirds got revenge for last year’s loss by beating the Lions, 25-15, 25-18.

In the end, however, Free State’s season also came to an end after Olathe South defeated the Firebirds, 25-17, 25-18.

“Our big goal coming into this was beating LHS because that’s who we lost to last year,” FSHS senior Brooke Carter said after falling to the Falcons. “We just got so excited after that. We expected ourselves to beat O-South again, because we beat them at our home match before.

“I honestly wish we could play that (Olathe South) game over again, because I know that we can show them a harder and better game than that. We just got so excited about winning against LHS, and we tried hard and had a lot of heart, but we just couldn’t finish it off.”

Coming up one victory short in sub-state meant even more for Carter and fellow seniors Melanie Chaussee, Kelsey Allen, Alyx Glover and Alli McDermott, who never got the opportunity to compete at the state tournament during their time at Free State.

“I’m sure they think that it’s their fault, and I think it’s my fault,” FSHS coach Nancy Hopkins said. “I feel really bad for them, because we’ve been to state, and I know what the experience is like for them. It’s a great experience, and I would give anything for them to have that experience, and I just wasn’t able to do it the last three years.”

The emotions were just as difficult for an LHS squad that suited up seven seniors: Emily Bracciano, Brea Wenger, Rachel Van Horn, Lindsey Murray, Bridget Wegner, Darcy McDonough and Kate Melton.

The Lions’ loss to FSHS was the second to their city rival this year. The Firebirds defeated the Lions back in the second match of the season.

“We’ve kind of been preparing for Free State all year,” Murray said. “Being cross-town rivals is always a hard thing to cope with whenever you lose. Even when you win, you’re like, ‘I know how they feel, because we’ve been through it.'”

Though the end results looked lopsided for the Lions, they forced the Firebirds to play perfectly throughout the first round, as Lawrence was within two points on the scoreboard halfway into each game.

At one point in Game 2, Lawrence won eight of 10 points and owned a 15-14 lead. Free State responded by claiming six of the next seven points to pull away for good.

“I think those points were just hard-fought points,” Murray said. “The first game didn’t go as well as we wanted it to, but we started to pull it together in the second game and didn’t miss too many serves and kind of fixed our own errors. But we just couldn’t finish, I guess.”