Sarah Pavan attended the University of Nebraska, where she became one of the most decorated NCAA student-athletes ever. After being named the #1 recruit out of high school, she went on to become a 4-time First-Team All-American (1 of 6 women ever) and lead the Cornhuskers to the 2006 NCAA National Championship. Sarah was the 2006 National Player of the Year and was awarded the prestigious Honda Broderick Cup as the top female student-athlete in the country in 2007.

Sarah majored in Biochemistry and graduated with a 4.0 GPA, which earned her the ESPN Academic All-American of the Year award for all sports. She is the only person to ever win the award twice. A 2018 inductee into the University of Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame, Sarah capped off her collegiate career as one of Today’s Top VIII Award winners.

After college, Sarah had a very successful professional indoor career, playing in Italy, Brazil, China, and South Korea over 10 years. During that time, she won 2 Brazilian Superliga Championships under the tutelage of the legendary Bernardinho. She was also named the European Volleyball League’s top attacker while in Italy. While continuing to play pro indoor, Sarah decided to leave the Canadian indoor national team and make the switch to beach volleyball during the summer season with the goal of going to the Olympics. She retired from professional indoor volleyball in 2018.

Since starting to represent Canada on the beach in 2013, Sarah won the 2019 World Championships with Melissa Humana-Paredes, and finished 5th at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. She is the 3-time FIVB World Tour Best Blocker, 2-time Commonwealth Games Champion, and 19-time World Tour medalist, including 7 gold medals. She is currently pursuing her third Olympic Games with current partner and Florida State University alum Molly McBain.

Sarah feels incredibly fortunate to have been able to live the life she has, and she owes most of it to volleyball. She is incredibly passionate about mentoring other volleyball players who are pursuing their dreams, and wants to be a resource to help them do the same things she has done. Sarah has intimate first-hand experience with every part of a volleyball player’s life, from club volleyball and the recruiting process all the way to the Olympic level. Her network of contacts around the NCAA and the rest of the world is quite large, and she offers a unique mixture of insights from the playing and analytical perspectives.