Nebraska's Pavan Earns Prestigious Honor

Cornhusker selected as 2007 Collegiate Women Athlete of the Year

June 25, 2007

By Anthony Oliva

Special to CSTV.com

 

NEW YORK - Nebraska volleyball player Sarah Pavan can go by a lot of names. She can be called a national champion. A Honda Award Winner.  An Academic All-American. NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player. And post-graduation, the biochemistry major may one day be called doctor.

 

But Monday, she added one more name to that list: 2007 Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year. Pavan became the 31st recipient of the Honda-Broderick Cup, the foremost athletic honor a female student athlete can receive. She was selected from a field of 12 Honda Award winners from the 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports in a ceremony at Columbia University. The presentation can be seen exclusively on CSTV Friday, June 29 at 8 p.m. ET.


 

 

 

"I was very surprised," said Pavan about winning the award. "I saw the other athletes that were up for the award. The things they had done this past year were unbelievable. I wasn't expecting to win."

 

The Kitchener, Ontario native was the first Cornhusker and third volleyball player ever to win the award.  She also was the first Canadian to win the award.

 

"It's great for Canada and for little girls back home knowing that they can come here and do great things," Pavan said. "I hope girls look at that and want to do the same thing."

 

The Honda-Broderick Cup recognizes not only athletic prowess, but academic success and leadership abilities. The impressive group of previous winners include soccer superstar Mia Hamm (North Carolina), track and field legend Jackie Joyner (UCLA) and basketball great Rebecca Lobo (UConn). 

 

The other finalists for this year's award included Tennessee's Monica Abbott and Candace Parker, Maryland's Paula Infante and North Carolina's Heather O'Reilly.

 

Also being recognized were the Division II and Division III Collegiate Women Athletes of the Year. Kylee Hanavan of Division II Metropolitan State College and Liz Bondi of Division III DePauw University were honored. 

 

Hanavan, a soccer standout, led Metropolitan State to two Division II national championships and Bondi, a tennis star, won the 2006 Division III singles championship.

 

Also, the Rutgers women's basketball team was given the Irv Grossman Award of Merit and Jess Kohut, of The College of New Jersey, who came back to play softball one year after getting hit directly in the face by a near 90 mile per hour line drive, was the recipient of the Honda Inspiration Award.

 

The main award, however, went to Pavan. The 6-foot-5 junior lead the Cornhuskers to a national championship and 33-1 record in 2006 and Nebraska held the No. 1 ranking the entire season.  She was also named 2006 American Volleyball Coaches Association National Volleyball Player of the Year.

 

The right-side hitter averaged 5.10 kills per game and 5.98 points, both of which led not only Nebraska, but also the Big 12.  She had double figure kills in 33 of her 34 matches and reached 20 kills in 10 matches while hitting .313 for the season. She is also a three time, first-team AVCA All-American.

 

In addition to her on-the-court success, the two-time Big 12 Conference Player of the Year has excelled in the class room. She has maintained a 4.0 GPA in biochemistry with hopes of one day becoming a pediatrician.

 

"I'm a perfectionist and I expect nothing but the best in everything I do, both in volleyball and in school," she said.

 

Pavan perfected the balance between academics and athletics and actually found her academic goals easier to accomplish than winning a national championship. 

 

"They are both so hard in different ways," Pavan said. "I'd probably say the national championship (was harder) because there are so many things you can't control. As for school, it's just one person focusing on grades."

 

If that wasn't enough, Pavan also finds time to be active in the Huskers' Life Skills Program as a public speaker. She has spoken to younger students about the importance of setting lofty goals, something that she values in her own life.

 

One of her main goals is for next year, where Pavan thinks that there is another great opportunity for her and her team that has a lot of returning talent.

 

"I came to Nebraska to win more than one national championship so hopefully we will win it again," she said.

 

As for her future plans, Pavan plans to move to Europe and play volleyball overseas for as long as she can.  However, she does intend on attending medical school to fulfill her desires to become a pediatrician.

 

The other Honda Award winners were Duke's Amanda Blumenherst for golf, Northwestern's Kristen Kjellman for lacrosse, Georgia's duo of Courtney Kupets for gymnastics and Kara Lynn for swimming, Texas Tech's Sally Kipyego for cross country, Auburn's Kerron Stewart for track and field and Miami's Audra Cohen for tennis.