Maine South senior setter and right-side hitter Stacey Sremac was hardly the tallest player on the Hawks girls volleyball team this fall. In fact, there was only one player shorter than the 5-foot-5 Sremac.
Yet, Sremac still posted a team-high 158 kills for a Hawks team that surprised many by going 23-14 and reaching the final of the Class 4A Rolling Meadows Regional. The Hawks lost to top-seeded Loyola 25-16, 24-26, 25-21 in the championship game on Oct. 27.
At the net, Sremac overcomes her lack of height with an impressive vertical leap and proper positioning and technique.
“Well, I’m not very tall, so I have to make sure when I do get up, that I’m really focusing on form, focusing on the ball and where I am on the court,” said Sremac, who lives in Park Ridge.
Sremac’s production also can be traced to her consistency and ability to come through in the clutch.
“When we need a ball put down, when we need a big play, we know we can go to her,” Maine South first-year head coach Allison Groessl said.
Sremac’s play up front is only part of what made her an invaluable member of the Hawks. Sremac also contributed 903 sets, 353 assists, 179 digs and 16 services aces.
A three-year varsity player, Sremac almost never came off the court. She also was one of three team captains, alongside fellow seniors Molly Carmichael and Peyton Turner.
“(Sremac) has done everything a coach looks for in a captain — leadership, great communication — she unites us as one. She’s just an awesome player.” Groessl said. “I can never take her off the floor. She plays all the way around.”
Carmichael calls Sremac the Hawks’ “floor captain.”
“(Sremac) is in the whole game, pretty much the whole season, and in those tough situations when we’re down, she’s leading by example and she always keeps us fighting,” said Carmichael, a Park Ridge resident.
During her first two seasons on varsity, Sremac played for two different coaches and on teams that struggled. Entering the 2016 campaign, expectations were somewhat modest for the Hawks and their new coach. Groessl, a 2008 Maine South graduate, had been a lower-level coach at the school from 2012-14.
Maine South started slowly this season, but improved steadily as the players got more familiar with one another, according to Sremac. The Hawks won 10 of their final 15 matches.
“A lot of us were not used to playing with each other,” Sremac said. “But around midseason things started to click and we started winning instead of being defeated (so much).”
Seeded eighth in the Glenbrook South Sectional, the Hawks almost pulled off one of the upsets of the season in the regional final.
After having lost handily to Loyola in two prior meetings in 2016, Maine South not only won the second game against the Ramblers, but it was up 17-10 in the third game before Loyola rallied to earn the title.
While Sremac said the Hawks felt like they had let one get away, the players’ disappointment quickly turned to pride.
“Although the season ended on a low note and it was disappointing to lose, we had so much fun and played with so much intensity (during the season),” Sremac said. “I have never been on a team before that improved so much. That’s the most rewarding part, and it was so cool how we were getting better and we ended so much differently than we started.”
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Dan Shalin is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter @Pioneer_Press