A year ago, Stagg’s Dan Sweeney was dreaming about playing baseball and making the major leagues as an outfielder. But then he did not make the varsity for the Chargers.
Sweeney had a pretty good fallback plan, however. He had played volleyball at Palos South and wanted to give it another try, so he tried out for the team as a junior.
“My coaches didn’t have a spot for me,” Sweeney said about baseball. “There were a lot of good outfielders. When I heard I wasn’t going to make the team, I was pretty disappointed.
“Now that I’ve matured, I want to do what makes me happy. And volleyball was the sport.”
Sweeney was a good sport Thursday night for Stagg, finishing with a team-high nine kills in a 25-14, 20-25, 25-22 SouthWest Suburban Conference win over Homewood-Flossmoor.
The senior right-side hitter had three kills and a block after the Chargers (14-11, 3-2) fell behind 12-6 in the third game. It makes sense since Sweeney is a converted outside hitter.
Charlie Librizzi added seven kills for Stagg, while Ali Elabsi had six and Matthew Wojciechowski had five. Junior middle Lane Sunley led H-F (17-11, 3-2) with 11 kills.
Sweeney, meanwhile, was able to step into a starting spot last season for the Chargers and has developed into a dangerous hitter this spring from the unfamiliar right side.
“He has been one of our killers this year,” Wojciechowski said of Sweeney. “He’s putting the ball down left and right all game every game. He’s been a big asset to the team.”
Stagg coach Jordan Sintich is happy the 6-foot-1 Sweeney decided to come back to volleyball.
“Last year, he played a large role on the team” Sintich said. “He’s an all-around great player and great kid. He’s everything you could ask for.
“He jumped right in, and I was amazed at his vertical. Everything came naturally to him. He developed as a player in a very short amount of time.”
Sweeney, who also played football, has given up playing pro baseball but has big dreams in another field. He’s heading to Indiana to study media, hoping to become a filmmaker.
Wojciechowski, a junior setter and right-side hitter, finished the match with a kill after he hit two straight balls long to allow H-F to close the gap to 23-20.
“I wanted to get one more chance,” he said of the 25th point. “To be honest, I was surprised I hit it out of bounds twice. I wasn’t expecting that.”
Speaking of the unexpected, Stagg pulled off a conference shocker earlier in the season at Lockport and followed it up with losses to Sandburg and Andrew before recovering with wins over Bolingbrook and Homewood-Flossmoor.
The Chargers are still trying to figure out where they stand.
“We’ve had a lot of ups and downs, but when we come out with energy, we do well,” Wojciechowski said. “We beat Lockport for the first time in 11 years. It wasn’t just a shock to Lockport or us — it was a shock to other teams.
“But we also have those games in which we get down on ourselves and can’t get back up. We need to work on that.”
Thursday’s win should help.
“We were down in the beginning of the second game and down at the beginning of the third game,” Sweeney said. “But we stayed composed, and our energy was through the roof.
“(Homewood-Flossmoor) beat Sandburg and we lost to Sandburg, so we came in here with an idea that we can compete with anyone.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
