Free State's Naomi Hickman gets up over the net during the first set of a game against Shawnee Mission East on Friday at the Kansas Expocentre in Topeka.

Topeka ? Free State High volleyball players believed the only way to keep their season alive at the Class 6A state tournament Friday was to find a way to beat top-seeded Blue Valley West.

After dropping the first set, the Firebirds responded with their best play of the season — rallying for a 23-25, 25-17, 25-23 victory against the previously-undefeated Jaguars.

But instead of spending most of their time celebrating one of the biggest wins in program history, the Firebirds learned minutes later through the public-address announcer that it was the final match of their season.

Earlier in pool play, the Firebirds lost to Shawnee Mission East (25-14, 25-19) and beat Shawnee Mission Northwest (25-23, 25-10). That created a three-way tie for two teams to advance to the state semifinals and the Firebirds were at the bottom of the tiebreaker, which was determined by percentage of sets won in the pool.

Blue Valley West won 5 of its 7 sets (.714), SM East won 4 of 6 (.667), and Free State won 4 of 7 (.571).

So with all of the joy of a monumental victory, the Firebirds were dealt with the cruel reality that they wouldn’t have the opportunity to play for a state title, ending the season with a 35-7 record.

“We’re not sad,” senior middle blocker Natalie Clarke said. “Yeah, our season ended but we just beat the undefeated, No. 1 team in the state and we played so hard. We had such a good crowd. It’s like straight joy, it’s so great.”

Despite any disappointment of ending the season, the Firebirds couldn’t be happier with their play against Blue Valley West (41-1, ranked No. 5 in the nation by USA Today). Free State coach Amy Hoffsommer said coaches were aware they couldn’t advance after dropping the first set, but didn’t tell players so they could stay focused on their play.

Prior to the match, the Jaguars had only dropped three sets all season — and swept the Firebirds on Sept. 29.

Free State senior Payton Gannaway said the last time the two teams met, the Firebirds “played scared.” Not this time. Believing they needed to win to have any hopes of keeping their season alive brought out the best in each other.

In the final set, the Firebirds jumped to a 9-2 lead behind kills from Gannaway, Clarke and senior Naomi Hickman, assisted from setters Jenalee Dickson and Mya Gleason. Then they did their best to hold onto that lead, receiving a boost from back-to-back service aces by junior Murphy O’Malley.

But the Jaguars eventually tied the score, 23-all, bringing the crowd to a full roar. After a BV West service error, Gannaway drilled the game-winning kill. Players on the court jumped up and down while others rushed off of the bench to join them.

“That’s an amazing feeling,” Hoffsommer said, “to see the confidence of the players that you have trained and all of the things that you believe in them come to fruition because they began to believe in themselves and really want it.”

In the first set against Blue Valley West, the Firebirds dropped the first six points. Then they bounced back, cutting their deficit to one point during the set, and that’s when they started to believe they could hold their own.

“It kind of lit a fire under us,” Hickman said, “like, ‘We’re not going to go down like this. We’re going to give it our all because this could be our last time, so we’re going to give 100 percent of all we’ve got.'”

After the start of the second set, a switch flipped. The Firebirds became the more aggressive team with big shots from Gannaway, Clarke, Naomi Hickman, Rachel Hickman, Cameryn Thomas and Kaitlyn Hamilton. O’Malley and Cushing refused to let a ball drop to the floor.

The match didn’t end with a trophy but it wasn’t much different from the way they wanted to end the season.

“That’s a great way to send the seniors off, beating that team,” Hoffsommer said. “They played so well and so together. That’s the best send off that we could give them other than a state championship.”

Clarke added: “Our team words are ‘competitive legacy.’ And that’s what we did. We played so hard. We were building legacy as the first team in 12 years to make it to state. We embodied those words today. We completed them.”