Sarah Lindsey Pavan (born August 16, 1986) is a Canadian beach volleyball and former indoor

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

player. She was part of the

Canada women's national volleyball team The Canada women's national volleyball team participates in international women's volleyball competitions and friendly games. The purpose of the Senior Women's A National Team Program is to identify, select and train a group of athletes who h ...

at the

2010 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship The 2010 FIVB Women's World Championship was the sixteenth edition of the competition. Like the previous tournament, the 2010 edition also was held from 29 October to 14 November 2010 in Japan, though the range of venues and locations was modif ...

in Japan. With Melissa Humana-Paredes she won the women's gold medal at the 2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships.

College indoor volleyball career

Pavan played college volleyball at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she led her team to win the

2006 NCAA Division I women's volleyball tournament The 2006 NCAA Division I women's volleyball tournament began on November 30, 2006 with 64 teams and concluded on December 16, 2006, when top ranked Nebraska defeated second ranked Stanford 3 sets to 1 in Omaha, Nebraska for the program's third NC ...

, in which she was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Her collegiate accolades are numerous, and include winning the

Honda Sports Award The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Sports Award are automatically in th ...

for volleyball (2007), the

Honda-Broderick Cup The Honda-Broderick Cup is a sports award for college-level female athletes. The awards are voted on by a national panel of more than 1000 collegiate athletic directors. It was first presented by Tom Broderick, an American owner of a women's sports ...

(2006–07), the AVCA National Player of the Year (2006), and thrice the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its f ...

Player of the Year (2005–07). She also won several academic awards, including twice winning

ESPN The Magazine ''ESPN The Magazine'' was an American monthly sports magazine published by the ESPN sports network in Bristol, Connecticut. The first issue was published on March 11, 1998. Initially published every other week, it scaled back to 24 issues a year ...

Academic All-American of the Year (2007–08) and earning a degree in biochemistry with a perfect 4.0 GPA.

Pro beach volleyball career

In beach volleyball, Pavan plays as a right-side blocker. After contacting Heather Bansley to find out if she knew anyone looking for a partner, she paired up with Bansley in 2013 when she changed over to beach volleyball. After qualifying for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, the pair competed in Pool E and won all 3 matches with a 2–0 set score. For the Round of 16 match, they were paired with the other Canadian team of Broder and Valjas, which they won in straight sets of (21–16, 21–11). They lost to Germany's Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst in straight sets of (14–21, 14–21) in the quarterfinals. Since September 2016, Pavan has partnered with Melissa Humana-Paredes. The pair achieved initial success on the international circuit during the 2017 FIVB season by winning gold medals at the Porec Major, silver medals at both the Rio de Janeiro and Olsztyn Opens, and bronze medals at the Gstaad Major.Beach Volleyball Database: Fédération Internationale de Volleyball World Tour 2017 Season Summary
/ref> Pavan and Humana-Paredes continued doing well internationally in 2018, winning the gold medal over Australia in straight sets at the

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth that were held on the Gold Coast, ...

.Beach Volleyball Results - Women's Gold Medal Match - Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games
/ref> As it was the first time beach volleyball was competed at the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 British Empire Game ...

, they became the first women to win a gold medal in the sport at the competition. After this initial success, the pair competed well on the

2018 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour The 2018 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour was the global elite professional beach volleyball circuit organized by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) for the 2018 beach volleyball season. Starts in September 2017 after the end o ...

, winning gold medals at both the Xiamen Open and Gstaad Major, and finishing in fourth place at the Huntington Beach Open.Beach Volleyball Database: Fédération Internationale de Volleyball World Tour 2018 Season Summary
/ref> During the 2019 FIVB season, they won silver medals at the Las Vegas and Itapema Open competitions.Beach Volleyball Database: Women's FIVB US$150,000 Las Vegas Four Star October 16-21, 2018
/ref>Beach Volleyball Database: Women's FIVB US$150,000 Itapema Four Star May 14-19, 2019
/ref> In their first AVP competition of 2019, they finished second in the tournament to the American duo of

Alix Klineman Alexandra Rose "Alix" Klineman (born December 30, 1989) is an American beach volleyball, 2020 Summer Olympics gold medalist, and former indoor volleyball player. In high school she was the 2006 Gatorade National Player of the Year. She was a ...

and

April Ross April Elizabeth Ross (born June 20, 1982) is an American beach volleyball player and three-time Olympic medalist. She won a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics with Jennifer Kessy, a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics with Kerri Wal ...

.Beach Volleyball Database: Women's AVP $100,000 Huntington Beach Open May 2-5, 2019
/ref> Two months later, Pavan and Humana-Paredes won gold medals at the 2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships, defeating Klineman and Ross in straight sets for Canada's first medal ever at the event. As the FIVB tour continued in 2019, they subsequently won gold medals at the Edmonton Open and Vienna Major,Beach Volleyball Database: Women's FIVB US$75,000 Edmonton Three Star July 17-21, 2019
/ref>Beach Volleyball Database: Women's FIVB US$300,000 Vienna Major Five Star July 30-August 4, 2019
/ref> though were eliminated in the quarterfinals of both the Gstaad Major and Tokyo Open by Klineman and Ross.Beach Volleyball Database: Women's FIVB US$150,000 Tokyo Four Star July 24-28, 2019
/ref> In mid-August, the duo returned to the AVP tour, reaching the finals in the Manhattan Beach Open and defeating Klineman and Ross in three sets. Pavan and Humana-Paredes were named to the Canadian Olympic team for the 2020 Summer Olympics in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, which the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

caused to be delayed until 2021. The two went undefeated during pool play, winning every set. Entering the knockout rounds as the top seed, they defeated Spaniards Liliana/ Baquerizo in the Round of 16. In the quarter final, a rematch of the Commonwealth Games final with Australians Clancy/ Artacho del Solar, they lost two sets to one and were eliminated from the tournament.

Personal life

Pavan has a younger sister,

Rebecca Rebecca, ; Syriac: , ) from the Hebrew (lit., 'connection'), from Semitic root , 'to tie, couple or join', 'to secure', or 'to snare') () appears in the Hebrew Bible as the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. According to biblical ...

, who also played indoor volleyball at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state's ...

and for certain European clubs. She too competed for the Canadian women's national team.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pavan, Sarah 1986 births Living people Canadian women's beach volleyball players Canadian women's volleyball players Beach volleyball blockers Beach volleyball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic beach volleyball players of Canada Sportspeople from Kitchener, Ontario Beach volleyball players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Canada Opposite hitters FIVB World Tour award winners Nebraska Cornhuskers women's volleyball players Expatriate volleyball players in Brazil Expatriate volleyball players in China Expatriate volleyball players in Italy Expatriate volleyball players in South Korea Expatriate volleyball players in the United States Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Canadian expatriate sportspeople in China Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Canadian expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Canadian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Serie A1 (women's volleyball) players GS Caltex Seoul KIXX players Commonwealth Games competitors for Canada Beach volleyball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Beach volleyball players at the 2022 Commonwealth Games