Free state senior goalkeeper Megan Hrenchir, left, collides with Olathe North's Lauren Lockey, center, as Free State senior defender Jenni Brooks looks on. The Firebirds lost, 4-1, Thursday on senior night at Free State.

For the nine senior Free State High girls soccer players, the torrential downpour in the second half didn’t dampen their senior night as much as the 4-1 loss to Olathe North on Thursday at Free State.

“I love playing in the rain actually – I’ve just had phenomenal memories of the rain back in club soccer,” senior goalkeeper Megan Hrenchir said. “You could tell that the ball was skipping differently, and that’s something you have to work on. But you can’t really focus on the weather very much. My goal is to stop the ball at any cost.”

FSHS coach Jason Pendleton said the weather wasn’t a factor in the outcome of the game, considering “both teams played in the same condition.”

“I thought it was one of our poorer outings of the season in terms of execution and things of that nature,” Pendleton said. “So we’re definitely disappointed. … Things that we normally execute against good teams, we weren’t able to do early in the game. All-in-all, I just felt like we were out of sync and did not play well.

“We struggled in a lot of areas. Simple things like clearing a ball and connecting passes.”

The Firebirds (5-7-2 overall, 2-7-1 Sunflower League) went into the halftime festivities with a 2-0 deficit. Fortunately for the seniors, the rain didn’t begin to fall until after the senior night ceremony.

Hrenchir held off the Eagles more than halfway into the second before giving up two more goals in the 67th and 68th minutes.

Three minutes later, senior Lucca Wang prevented a shutout.

Wang’s goal resulted from freshman Hannah Carlson passing the ball up to junior Leah Williams for a shot attempt, which was blocked. Wang was there to put the rebound into the net.

“I think that was a small part of the game,” Wang said. “It was certainly good to get a goal on them, but we could have done better and could have had more goals.”

Some of the seniors plan to continue playing soccer after high school. Bry Aiken and Amanda Vervynck will play together at Hutchinson Community College on soccer scholarships. Clare Robinson, who will attend Trinity University, is considering trying out for the school’s soccer team.

Other seniors recognized during halftime were Andrea Barricklow, Jenni Brooks, Kelsie Lange and Cynthis Oben.

“It’s bittersweet. We’ve come so far from freshman year, when we were afraid of the seniors and we were afraid of coach,” said Hrenchir, who will continue playing soccer at Newberry College in South Carolina. “And now, we’ve all just grown together, and it’s so much fun. But at the same time we’re all just leaving each other, and it’s just kind of sad to think that these girls, who I’ve played soccer with for over four years with club and in high school, I’m leaving them and I’m going to join a new team.

“It’s kind of sad, but at the same time, what a milestone.”

The Firebirds have one home game remaining. They will play host to Shawnee Mission South Monday before their regular-season finale at Shawnee Mission Northwest on Wednesday.