Free State High junior Erin Cushing dives to make a dig while teammate Mya Gleason (10) rushes to the net during their city showdown volleyball match against Lawrence High on Tuesday evening at FSHS. The Firebirds won their senior night match, beating the Lions in four sets.

When Free State High’s volleyball team started the season, juniors Erin Cushing and Murphy O’Malley were hoping to find ways to crack the varsity rotation.

Two months later and the Firebirds can’t imagine playing without them.

Cushing and O’Malley have only improved throughout the season, helping the Firebirds earn their first trip to the Class 6A state tournament in 12 years. The Firebirds open at 9:30 a.m. Friday at the Topeka Expocentre, facing Shawnee Mission East (28-8), Shawnee Mission Northwest (16-20) and Blue Valley West (39-0) in pool play.

The top two teams in pool play will advance to Saturday’s state semifinals. Free State beat SM East and SM Northwest in a home quad on Sept. 8, and lost to Blue Valley West on Sept. 29.

Of course, all teams will feature a different look than they did in the first month of the season. That includes Free State’s defense with Cushing and O’Malley, which has helped the Firebirds to an 11-match winning streak.

“Just every practice we just focus on that a lot,” O’Malley said. “I feel like we’ve gotten a lot better with that. Just before every serve, I’m like, ‘Serve me, I’ve got this.’ I just have to tell myself that and then I’m good for the rest of the game.”

With several power hitters — seniors Naomi Hickman and Payton Gannaway, junior Cameryn Thomas, sophomore Rachel Hickman and freshman Kaitlyn Hamilton — the Firebirds knew the key to their season was on the defensive end.

Passing out of serves was one of their big issues at the beginning of the season, needing consistent passes to setters Jenalee Dickson and Mya Gleason to start the offense. So it wasn’t a matter if the Firebirds would work on it during practice, the only question was how long before moving onto other drills.

“We knew from the start,” Free State coach Amy Hoffsommer said, “that we were not going to be good unless we had a passer out of serve receive and we had a decent defense behind it.”

Cushing and O’Malley have answered any and all question marks. Cushing, who played junior-varsity last year, has emerged as an athletic libero with the speed to get to most balls that fly over their big block. She’s recorded a team-best 312 digs in 90 sets.

O’Malley, who was on Free State’s C-team last season, was called up to varsity on Sept. 10 when several seniors were forced to miss a tournament because of ACT testing. She recorded 20 digs in those four matches and remained in the varsity lineup, Hoffsommer said, because of all the leadership qualities she brought to the court.

The two have played together since the third grade at Corpus Christi and were coached at the youth level by O’Malley’s mother, Colleen.

“We’re kind of a pair,” Cushing said. “We work together. We bring a lot of energy, for sure. I think that helps us out this year.”

Along with all of their defensive duties, the 5-foot-6 Cushing and 5-foot-5 O’Malley are usually the loudest and most expressive players on the floor. That includes calling out spots on the floor during play and celebrating afterward.

With strong defense, the fourth-seeded Firebirds (33-6) have realized their potential. The offense is as advertised, but the defense has only continued to improve.

“Erin and I are pretty loud and kind of annoying,” said O’Malley, noting she loses her voice after most matches. “But I mean, if you don’t have loud people, then you can’t have a loud team — and loud teams win. We’ve proven that.”?