Olathe ? There are a couple of tricks to getting through a sub-state volleyball tournament and into the promised land that is known by a single word: state. One is peaking at the right time. The other is drawing a favorable matchup.

Both Free State’s and Lawrence’s volleyball teams left the Class 6A Olathe South sub-state tourney Saturday afternoon feeling they had played at as high a level as they had at any point this season. But neither had quite enough to topple some familiar opposition.

The Firebirds completed a season sweep of the Lions, winning 25-21, 25-22, in a semifinal before dropping two straight sets to defending 6A champion Olathe East, 25-17, 25-20.

Free State’s Sydney Moreano, still wiping away some tears moments after she and fellow seniors Paige Corcoran, Morgan Noll and Bayley Witcher Goscha took part in the final match of their careers, said she felt proud, in spite of the season-ending setback.

“I just think we’ve come a long way from the beginning of the season. We have the fight now, it’s just a little too late,” Moreano said, forcing a chuckle.

FSHS coach Nancy Hopkins agreed, saying the team gelled in the final week of the season and played well against O-East, an opponent that “pretty much killed” the Firebirds earlier this season.

With kills from sophomore Emma Barberena, junior Allison Knapp, sophomore Naomi Hickman and sophomore Payton Gannaway early in the second set against the Hawks, Free State had the match tied at 13, and later got as close as a 22-20 deficit before the devastating swings of O-East finally propelled the defending champs back to state.

“They didn’t give up,” Hopkins said of the Firebirds. “Throughout the season, we’d get behind five or six and tend to roll over and die. We didn’t do that. It would’ve been easy to do that to these guys, because they hit really hard.”

The Firebirds (19-19) trailed 14-5 early in the first set, but proved something to themselves from that point on.

“It didn’t really hit people that we were so close, and we were up,” Moreano said of the second set. “Toward the end, I think everybody felt just how close we were, and that we could beat a team like that.”

Lions improve, but fall

Similar sentiments flowed out of the LHS postgame huddle, following the team’s fourth straight loss to rival Free State.

Just two days earlier, the Firebirds dismantled Lawrence (13-25) by scores of 25-13, 25-15, 25-12.

“After the game Thursday,” Lawrence junior Caroline Dykes shared, “we were all angry about that loss. I think (Saturday’s showing) was just built-up emotion from always losing against them, and we wanted to give them our best shot, because we haven’t been able to do that.”

The Lions did all they could in the first-round sub-state loss. Dykes, senior Keeli Billings and senior Marlee Bird came through with key points in the first set to keep an upset win within reach.

In the second set, an ace from junior Kyleigh Severa, followed shortly by kills from junior Katie Murrish, senior Makayla Wagner and Dykes, gave LHS a 16-10 advantage.

But Free State stole away momentum with a 7-0 run, with Gannaway serving. FSHS junior Lauren Johnson and Gannaway set their teammates up throughout the victory, and Hickman punctuated the Firebirds’ win with a kill.

It was the Lions’ third City Showdown loss in the past week, but LHS coach Stephanie Magnuson said this one was her team’s best performance.

“We really just put everything out on the table and played relentless,” she said. “They went after it, so we’re going out feeling good.”