Free State volleyball players pose with their regional championship plaque after beating Washburn Rural in straight sets to advance to the state tournament on Oct. 22, 2016.

One set away from a spot in the Class 6A state tournament Saturday, Free State High junior Cameryn Thomas wasn’t going to let anything stand in her way.

Thomas plays her best when she’s angry and she took it all out against Washburn Rural defenders, drilling seven kills in the set. That included back-to-back kills to seal a 25-20, 25-20 sub-state finals victory at FSHS.

It’s the fifth time the Firebirds have advanced to the Class 6A state tournament, the first time since 2004.

During one stretch, the 5-foot-7 Thomas, an athletic point guard for the girls basketball team, drilled three straight kills from the left side of the net.

“Man, she was on fire,” Free State coach Amy Hoffsommer said. “Something about Washburn Rural and her. I think it stems from basketball, too. I think she has a little angst there with them, but whatever it was, it was beautiful. I loved it.”

Highlighted by Thomas, the top-seeded Firebirds (33-6) were at their best offensively and had a .268 hit percentage, committing only seven errors to their 26 kills.

“It’s amazing, Cameryn is so good,” senior middle blocker Naomi Hickman said. “When she gets a fire under her butt like that, it’s crazy.”

Free State never trailed in the first set, jumping to a 20-12 advantage with a balanced offensive attack. Hickman, a Creighton commit, had four kills, smashing shots over blockers on passes from setters Mya Gleason and Jenalee Dickson.

On one play in the opening set, Hickman went to the ground for a dig and the ball ricochet all the way over the net to the back corner for a kill. It was just that kind of day where everything was working.

Defensively, the Firebirds were lifted by juniors Erin Cushing and Murphy O’Malley. Their serve receive, something they’ve worked on all season, was strong in the final set.

At the net, Rachel Hickman, a Kansas commit, recorded a team-best six blocks, teaming up a few times with senior Natalie Clarke.

“We just had some fire,” said Naomi Hickman, the school’s all-time leader in kills. “We really wanted to go to state. We’ve worked for it the whole season. I think we felt like we deserved it and we worked hard for it.”

Free State trailed for a total of four points in the second set, pulling away when the Hickman sisters traded kills for a 16-13 lead. Then freshman Kaitlyn Hamilton found a rhythm with three kills to trade points with the fourth-seeded Junior Blues (25-15).

The two schools played twice last week at the Emporia tournament — Free State winning both matches in three sets.

Despite the saying that it’s tough to beat a team three times in a season — this time, a week — the Firebirds were confident and prepared, especially after their fast start.

“Things were working for us,” senior Payton Gannaway said. “We’ve been practicing and watching film on them, working on attacking their weaknesses. It was just working.”

Before their sub-state games — the Firebirds beat Wichita Southeast in the first round, 25-9, 25-7 — Hoffsommer read from sheets of paper where all of the Firebirds wrote why they enjoy playing volleyball.

“Inevitably, almost all of them put, ‘I love my teammates. I love to play for my team,'” Hoffsommer said. “And that’s what they did. They played for their team today.”