Sarah Lindsey Pavan (born August 16, 1986) is a Canadian

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...

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 in Japan. With

Melissa Humana-Paredes Melissa Humana-Paredes (born October 10, 1992) is a Canadian beach volleyball player, who is partnered with Brandie Wilkerson. Humana-Paredes won the women's gold medal with Sarah Pavan at the 2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships. Early li ...

she won the women's gold medal at the

2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships The 2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships was held in Hamburg, Germany from 28 June to 7 July 2019.

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, 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 sport ...

(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 ...

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 i ...

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 Heather Bansley (born September 13, 1987) is a Canadian beach volleyball player, playing as a left-side defender. She has been named FIVB Best Defensive Player of the World Tour in 2015, 2016 and 2018. University career Bansley played CIS voll ...

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 Broder or Bröder is a surname. Notable people with the surname Broder / Bröder include: *Andrei Broder (born 1953), Research Fellow and Vice President of Emerging Search Technology for Yahoo! * Andrew Broder (1845–1918), Ontario farmer and me ...

and Valjas, which they won in straight sets of (21–16, 21–11). They lost to Germany's

Laura Ludwig Laura Ludwig-Bowes (born 13 January 1986) is a German professional beach volleyball player, playing as a defender. Previously forming a pair with compatriot Kira Walkenhorst, she represents Hamburger SV and has won four European championships. S ...

and

Kira Walkenhorst Kira Katharina Walkenhorst (born 18 November 1990) is a retired German beach volleyball player who played as a blocker. She has an older brother Alexander Walkenhorst who is a professional beach volleyball player and a younger sister Pia Walken ...

in straight sets of (14–21, 14–21) in the quarterfinals. Since September 2016, Pavan has partnered with

. 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 that were held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

.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, and, with the exce ...

, 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, 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 fou ...

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 Walsh ...

.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 The 2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships was held in Hamburg, Germany from 28 June to 7 July 2019.

, 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 The Manhattan Beach Open is a beach volleyball tournament held annually during the summer in Manhattan Beach, California. Held on the south side of the Manhattan Beach Pier, the Open is the only professional volleyball tournament in which amat ...

and defeating Klineman and Ross in three sets. Pavan and Humana-Paredes were named to the Canadian Olympic team for the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, 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 identif ...

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 Liliana is derived from the Latin word 'lilium' or 'lilion', both mean 'lily' in English. Due to this, the name means "pure" and "innocent". The name is generally found in North America, though it is more common in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese ...

/ 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 University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...

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