Pavan Breaks Record, Huskers Sweep

Lincoln ? One a night where the Husker volleyball program reached one milestone, Sarah Pavan reached another, helping No. 1 Nebraska remained undefeated with a 30-16, 30-25, 30-26 sweep of Kansas Saturday night.

The Huskers, who were celebrating their 100th consecutive home sellout in the historic NU Coliseum, rolled to their 65th consecutive home win, while Pavan passed Allison Weston for NU’s all-time lead in career kills.

Pavan, who now has 1,780 career kills, passed Weston with her 16th kill of the night, a shot down the line that gave the Huskers the lead for good in the finale at 22-21. She finished with a match-high 17 kills on .406 hitting, two aces and three blocks.

"It means a lot," Pavan said, "The Nebraska program has had some great players come through it, and it’s definitely one of the top programs in the country. I’m very excited to be able to do that, just follow Allison Weston, one of the greatest players to ever play at the collegiate level. It’s really humbling."

"I just know Sarah wants to be one of the greatest players ever to play here," Cook said. "One way you measure that is by stats and records, and it’s quite an accomplishment considering all the players who have been in this program for Sarah to pass that. It’s a major accomplishment."

Weston, a three-time All-American at Nebraska and national player of the year as a senior, totaled 1,778 kills between 1992 and 1995.

"I knew I had 15 to go," Pavan said. "When I got my 16th kill, I could hear the crowd, so I figured I had probably reached 16. It was a really good feeling."

Pavan’s kill highlighted a run of five unanswered points for NU, helping to turn a 21-20 deficit into a 25-21 advantage. That would be all the Huskers (18-0, 11-0 Big 12) would as they collected their 16th consecutive sweep and picked up their 80th win in 81 all-time meetings with the Jayhawks.

Kansas (10-11, 3-8 Big 12) played well in defeat, hitting .151 behind 10 kills from Jenna Kaiser and became only the second team to reach 25 in multiple games against the Huskers, the lone remaining undefeated team in Division I.

Nebraska came out firing in the opener, hitting .533 on 30 swings in posting a 30-16 victory. Pavan led the charge, going a perfect 7-for-7 in swings and adding two of the Huskers’ five aces in game one. The Huskers jumped on Kansas early, winning nine of the first 11 rallies to take a seven-point lead and force a Jayhawk timeout. Kansas got to within 15-8, but a Pavan ace and five straight points off the serve of libero Rachel Schwartz made put KU away and gave the Huskers a commanding 13-point lead. The spurt was highlighted by an amazing Schwartz dig to keep a rally alive before Houghtelling brought the sellout crowd of 4,165 to its feet with a blast from the left side.

"Our passers were doing a really good job allowing Rachel (Holloway) to run her offense," Pavan said. "I was getting a couple of one-on-ones, which was really helpful. Things were just clicking for the whole team. If you’re passing well, blockers have to choose who they want to block."

Kansas battled back in game two, leading by as many as four points before eventually succumbing, 30-25, as NU relied on its middle blocking duo of Tracy Stalls and Kori Cooper. The pair combined for nine kills without an error to pace the Husker attack. Trailing 7-6, Kansas used two kills from Kaiser and a pair of NU miscues to run off four straight points and take a 10-7 lead. The Jayhawks eventually pushed the margin to 14-10 and lead 22-19 before NU made its final run. Cooper started the run with a kill before combining with Pavan to stuff Karina Garlington to get the Huskers within a point. KU was up 23-21 before a Pavan kill and Jayhawk error tied the game and set up the turning point of game two. The teams turned in the longest rally of the night before Holloway found Stalls, who slammed home a kill to give the Huskers their first lead since 7-6. KU would knot the score at both 24 and 25, but never regained the lead again, as Pavan’s kill began a game-ending 5-0 run to send the Huskers up 2-0 to the locker room.

The Huskers raced out to a 7-2 lead in game three, only to see Kansas roar back. The Jayhawks outscored NU 14-6 during the spurt, taking its first lead at 12-11 on a Kaiser kill before eventually pushing the margin to 16-13 on an ace from Melissa Grieb. NU, which hit just .150 in the finally, regrouped and ran off three straight points to tie the game at 16-all on a KU hitting error. The teams traded points until Pavan ran off consecutive kills, tying Weston’s record and the game at 21-all before her record breaker put NU ahead to stay.

The Huskers will return to action tomorrow evening when they host the No. 11 Hawai’i Rainbow Wahine at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. First serve is set for 5 p.m. and over 13,000 tickets have been sold. While all the tickets to the general public are sold out, UNL students can get in for free by showing their valid UNL ID at the Devaney Center entrance.

The Automated ScoreBook Kansas vs #1 Nebraska (Oct 20, 2007 at Lincoln, NE)

Kansas | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN ## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Martincich, Katie... 3| 0 1 2 -.500| 18| 0 0| 0| 9| 0 0 0| 0 7 Brown, Emily........ 3| 9 7 24 .083| 19| 0 2| 2| 9| 0 1 0| 0 9 Uhart, Natalie...... 3| 5 2 17 .176| 0| 0 3| 0| 0| 0 2 0| 0 12 Kaiser, Jenna....... 3| 10 6 32 .125| 0| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 0 0| 0 15 Garlington, Karina.. 3| 8 5 26 .115| 0| 1 1| 0| 13| 0 0 0| 0 18 Noyes, Savannah..... 3| 1 0 5 .200| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 1 0| 0 1 Manda, Melissa...... 3| 0 0 0 .000| 1| 0 1| 3| 11| 0 0 0| 0 4 Grieb, Melissa...... 3| 0 0 1 .000| 0| 1 0| 3| 4| 0 0 0| 0 6 Americo, Carol...... 1| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0 11 Mahoney, Caitlin.... 1| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0 16 Lino, Flavia........ 3| 8 2 12 .500| 2| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 2 1| 0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Totals.............. 3| 41 23 119 .151| 40| 2 7| 8| 48| 0 6 1| 0

TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 3.0 Game K E TA Pct 1 8 4 30 .133 GAME SCORES 1 2 3 TEAM RECORDS 2 19 9 47 .213 Kansas.............. (0) 16 25 26 10-11, 3-8 Big 12 3 14 10 42 .095 Nebraska............ (3) 30 30 30 18-0, 11-0 Big 12

Nebraska | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN ## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 Houghtelling, Chris. 3| 10 2 26 .308| 0| 1 2| 1| 9| 0 1 0| 0 9 Pavan, Sarah........ 3| 17 4 32 .406| 0| 2 2| 0| 4| 1 2 0| 0 10 Larson, Jordan...... 3| 9 3 28 .214| 2| 2 2| 0| 6| 1 3 0| 0 11 Stalls, Tracy....... 3| 8 1 15 .467| 1| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 2 1| 0 12 Holloway, Rachel.... 3| 1 1 4 .000| 42| 2 0| 0| 6| 0 1 1| 2 15 Cooper, Kori........ 2| 6 1 12 .417| 1| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 3 0| 0 1 Griffin, Maggie..... 3| 0 0 0 .000| 1| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 0 0| 0 2 Banwarth, Kayla..... 1| 0 0 1 .000| 0| 0 1| 1| 5| 0 0 0| 0 4 Licht, Lindsey...... 3| 0 1 1-1.000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0 5 Schwartz, Rachel.... 2| 0 0 0 .000| 1| 1 1| 0| 11| 0 0 0| 0 17 Gates, Amanda....... 1| 0 1 3 -.333| 0| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 2 0| 0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Totals.............. 3| 51 14 122 .303| 48| 8 8| 2| 44| 2 14 2| 2

TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.0 Game K E TA Pct 1 19 3 30 .533 Site: Lincoln, NE (NU Coliseum) 2 19 4 52 .288 Date: Oct 20, 2007 Attend: 4165 Time: 1:30 3 13 7 40 .150 Referees: Tom Pingel, Joan Powell