From the moment she arrived in Lincoln, Pavan has been fighting a losing battle in the dangerous war between perception and reality.

Teresa Prince photo, Redwire

She said she cannot remember a time when her teammates ever acknowledged an honor she had received in her storied career.

“Oh, I’ve never been congratulated for anything I’ve gotten,” she said. “I’ve actually had it said to me before, ‘Why do you have to get every award that there is? You like the attention, don’t you?’ It’s hard because I’m actually the complete opposite. I hate the attention. It’s just hard to see that the people you are around so often don’t even know you.”

After four years of constantly struggling to be one of the girls, to bond with her teammates, Pavan said she felt exhausted, worn down by the frustrations of being the best.

“I have felt a lot of resentment,” she said. “I don’t know what I can do about it, you know? I’m not going to change who I am to make other people happy. I’ve never once talked about any award I’ve gotten. It doesn’t define who I am.

According to Omaha World Herald, the article stirred up some dust in the volleyball offices. Two days after the Lincoln Journal Star reprinted the original Redwire story, expanding its exposure, the Daily Nebraskan ran a follow-up that stated that Cook had told Pavan she could no longer practice with the team. She could return, the article stated, if she apologized to teammates. She declined.

The four-time, first-team All-American who also managed to hold down a 4.0 in biochemistry, graduates this month and makes her way to Northern Italy, where she joins the professional team SpesVolley. She recently signed a three-year contact with the team.

 While playing Wichita State for a spot at regionals, the Nebraska women’s volleyball team did exactly what it is supposed to do, win.  Playing in the Coliseum for for their final time, 3 time National Player of the Year, Sara Pavin put down 15 kills while hitting .481 and Tracy Stalls added 10 kills and 4 blocks.  Jordan Larsen registered 11 kills 9 digs and had 5 aces.  The Huskers tallied 15 total aces while beating the Shockers 30-22  30-19, 30-19 in front of a crowd of 4,056.  

Nebraska is now headed to Madison, Wisconsin , for their NCAA record 14th straight regional, against Michigan State on Friday

There’s a lot of Husker content on MySpace. Official stuff like the video above from Sarah Pavan. And personal things like players’ profiles. Here’s a quick list of football players with an active MySpace account:

Ben Eisenhart

Steve Octavien

Carl Nicks

Corey McKeon

Larry Asante

Octavien and Asante use their pages to promote The Lord. Nicks tells us he’s from Cali and not to mess with him. Eisenhart’s page is probably the best of the lot, although his taste in music is not good. His interestes include: “Nebraska football, Partyin, maybe going to class once in awhile and just hanging out.” I’m not bustin’ on him. It’s college. Time to enjoy.

At any rate, I took an interest in this today because I wanted to see if the fans, in many cases fellow students at NU, were supportive or not. From what I’ve seen, they are indeed. Of course, that’s the nature of “friending” someone on MySpace, which you must do in order to leave a comment.

Single-match ticket prices for the upcoming season are set at $16 (floor and limited view seats), $10 (adult general admission) and $8 (youth/seniors general admission). Fans are limited to two tickets per regular-season home match at the NU Coliseum.

Tickets can be purchased on the Internet at Huskers.com, in person at the Athletic Ticket Office, located across the street from Memorial Stadium beginning at 8 a.m. or by calling (800) 8-BIGRED. Ticket Office hours are from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday.

Six-foot-five rightside hitter, Sarah Pavan, was awarded the 31st annual Honda-Broderick Cup as the NCAA female college athlete of the year on Monday.

The two-time conference player of the year–who maintained a 4.0 in biochemistry while leading the Cornhuskers to the national championship last season–plans to play professionally in Europe and become a pediatrician after graduation.

Does the junior from Kitchener, Ont., expect to repeat in her senior season?

“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “I came to Nebraska to win more than one national championship.”

[via Canada East]

Nebraska defeated Stanford 3-1 to win the 2006 National Championship. After dropping the first set 27-30, the Huskers rallied to take the next three, 30-26, 30-28, 30-27.

Congratulations!

Nebraska will face the winner between Stanford and Washington; in progress at the time of publication.

The National Championship game is slated for 8:00 pm Central Saturday at the Qwest Center.

Update
The Huskers will face Stanford who defeated Washington 3-0.

On a side note, we don’t have the resources to cover the upcoming event but if any Husker volleyball fans want to help us out, drop us a line at huskers@huskerzone.com.

Eric Gray (AP) caught the photo which conveys the Husker disapointment.

From Huskers.com:

Senior All-American Melissa Elmer led three players in double-figure kills by pounding a match-high 13 kills on .647 hitting – tying for the fourth-best postseason mark in NU history – as the No. 1 Nebraska volleyball team advanced to the fifth championship match in program history with a 3-0 sweep of Santa Clara (30-24, 30-19, 30-21) in front of 7,931 fans at the Alamodome Thursday evening.

The Huskers will look for their third national title and first since 2000 on Saturday at 5 p.m. in a match televised live on ESPN2. The Huskers – backed by over 4,000 fans who made the trip and another 2,500 at the Devaney Center in Lincoln, will look to become only the third team in NCAA history to be ranked No. 1 from wire to wire.