Cook Announces 2004 Recruiting Class

• Nebraska Signing Day Press Conference Quotes

Lincoln --  Nebraska volleyball coach John Cook announced Wednesday that the Huskers will be joined next season by one of the best athletes in the state and one of the top young talents on the international scene. Meghan Smith, a 6-1 middle blocker from Sidney, Neb., and Sarah Pavan, a 6-5 right side hitter from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, signed national letters-of-intent Wednesday to play volleyball for the Huskers beginning in 2004.

"The Nebraska 2004 class will have a huge impact on our program on and off the court," NU Coach John Cook said. "Both of these young women are very competitive people who are driven to be great in everything that they do. Both have fathers who are teachers and coaches, so they understand competition.

"Meghan and Sarah will continue Nebraska’s tradition of recruiting student-athletes who are exceptional people from exceptional families. The opportunity to coach gifted student-athletes like Meghan and Sarah is what makes coaching at Nebraska so special."

Sarah Pavan, 6-5, RS, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Pavan, who committed to the Huskers last Saturday, is one of the most highly-regarded young players in the world. She has been a member of the Canadian Youth and Junior National Teams since 2000. She won MVP honors at the 2002 NORCECA Championships in Salt Lake City, Utah. In Canada’s four-game loss to the U.S. Youth National Team Aug. 4, Pavan scored a match-high 28 points on 24 kills, three blocks and a service ace. Pavan later made the jump to the senior national team and competed at the 2003 World Grand Prix in Italy in July. She is the youngest player ever to compete for the Canadian National Team.

Pavan also played on a highly successful prep team coached by her father, Paul Pavan, at Forest Heights Collegiate Institute. The team was the 2002 and 2003 provincial champions, the 2001, 2002 and 2003 regional and Waterloo County champions. Pavan, a left-handed attacker who also played setter, was named the 2003 Waterloo County MVP. Pavan played club volleyball for the Waterloo Tigers, which were also coached by her father. The Tigers were the Ontario Volleyball Association champions in 2001, 2002, and 2003.

Pavan also plays basketball at Forest Heights Collegiate Institute and averaged 22 points per game. She was a second-team Waterloo County All-Star in 2002. An excellent student-athlete, she has been named to the honor roll three straight years. She boasts a 93 percent grade average.

Pavan was recruited by most Division I schools before narrowing her list to Nebraska, Stanford, Minnesota, Ohio State, Washington and Wisconsin.

"Without a doubt, Sarah is one of the top youth players in the world," Cook said. "She will bring international experience and a history of success to our program. At Nebraska, Sarah will have the opportunity to be the Huskers’ first four-time All-American. She is also an excellent student, and we feel she will continue the tradition of Academic All-American at Nebraska. We feel blessed that Sarah found Nebraska a perfect fit for her both athletically and academically."

Meghan Smith, 6-1, MB, Sidney, Neb.
Smith, who committed to the Huskers in May, is one of the top players in the region. A two-time All-Western Conference selection and a second-team all-state pick by the Omaha World-Herald in 2002, Smith and the Sidney volleyball team will be playing in the Nebraska state tournament this weekend. Smith is averaging 6.20 kills per game on a .454 hitting percentage and 2.60 blocks per game, the highest average in the state this year. A gifted blocker, Smith was also the all-class leader as a junior in 2002 with 202 ace blocks.

Smith played club volleyball with the Panhandle Volleyball Club before joining the Nebraska Juniors last summer to play alongside current Husker freshmen Dani Mancuso, Dani Busboom and Christina Houghtelling.

A three-sport athlete, Smith has been equally successful in basketball and track. She runs the 100 and 200 meters in track and has qualified for the Nebraska state track meet each of the last three seasons. As a freshman, Smith was a member of the Sidney’s 1600-meter relay team that placed third and the 400-meter relay team that placed fourth in Class B. On the basketball court, Smith earned honorable-mention all-conference honors her sophomore and junior seasons, and was an Omaha World-Herald honorable-mention all-state selection in 2003.

A dedicated student-athlete, Smith has been on the ?A’ honor roll at Sidney throughout her high school career.

Smith chose Nebraska over Colorado State and Oklahoma.

"Meghan is a typical Nebraska recruit in that she is a great athlete with exceptional quickness," Cook said. "Meghan will continue our tradition of Huskers from the Western half of Nebraska, following in the footsteps of exceptional student-athletes like Angie Oxley and Kim Behrends. Meghan is a great competitor and will blossom in our program."

Signing Day Press Conference Quotes
Nebraska Head Coach John Cook

Opening Statement

First of all, we are really excited about our 2004 class, in that it continues with the tradition at Nebraska of recruiting the best kids in the state and supplementing that with best talent in the country, and in this case, North America. We are continuing that pattern. Both of these young women, both of their dads are coaches and both are teachers. We were talking about that and found something interesting. If you go back to the year 2000, Jill McWilliams, Kim Behrends, Pam Krecji, Jenny Kropp, Lindsay Wischmeier, Laura Pilakowski, Amber Holmquist, Dani Bussboom, Amanda McCormick, Anna Schrad and Jenae Dowling, their parents are either coaches or teachers. We found an interesting trend in that a lot of the kids who end up at Nebraska, their parents are involved in education and coaching. Both Megan and Sarah are great competitors, and I think one of the reasons is that their dads are involved in coaching and they have been involved in competitive environments.

 

In regards to Megan, she leads <?xml:namespace prefix="st1"?>Nebraska in blocks, and I believe that this is the first time that Sidney has been to the state tournament in over 20 years, so we are really excited about that. Megan is an exceptional athlete, she’s very quick. Quickness will be what makes her exceptional at this level.

 

On Sarah, for eight years Nebraska volleyball either had Lisa Reitsma of Nancy Meendering (Metcalf). Sarah now continues that tradition for us of having a dominant left-handed attacker. If you look at our record over those eight years, it might be the best winning record in the country, and one of the reasons for that is that having someone who is left-handed is an advantage because they can be such great attackers.

 

Sarah might be the most expensive recruit ever in Nebraska volleyball, because I’ve had to follow her all over the world in the recruiting process. Obviously going to Canada to watch her play, and this summer I went to Italy to watch the Grand Prix. The Grand Prix is one of the biggest money tournaments in volleyball. This summer I found myself in Italy, because she has been playing with the Canadian National Team.

 

The other thing that we found very interesting in recruiting Sarah and one of the reasons that she fit so well at Nebraska is that anybody who is going to go that far away and to another country has to feel at home. Obviously she loved the Coliseum and the atmosphere. Once we get recruits here, it’s hard for them not to fall in love with that building and the fans. Also, academics were really important to her. She’s a straight-A student and was looking at the top academic schools in the country. Dr. Banerjee in the bio-chemistry department had a great meeting with her family. We also have an internship program in forensic medicine with the state lab, and those people were very helpful. Even the Chancellor (Harvey Perlman) and (Athletic Director) Steve Pederson were involved when her family was here. It was a tremendous team effort from the academic and the athletic side that brought it all together for her. Obviously she felt very comfortable here.

 

The other thing that really set us apart was our Canadian student-athlete connection here. We have Priscilla Lopes and Shelley-Ann Brown on the track team that are from her area. Chelsea Aubrey, on the basketball team, is from her rival high school. Steph Colbas, who is the golf coach Pius X high school, and her husband were students of Sarah’s dad in Kitchener. They are season ticket holders and stay in contact with the family. Soccer coach John Walker was instrumental. A lot of things really came together. Sarah and her family felt really comfortable at Nebraska and the environment here. It was a great job by everybody. Ironically, she was here the weekend we lost to Kansas State. Recruits go and see how the coaches coach and she got to see me coach for the first time as we lost our first match as a staff in the Big 12. She got to see it all. I think it is an interesting story on how she got to Nebraska.

 

On signing top players from Nebraska and elsewhere

I don’t really consider Sarah somebody who is from a foreign country. Canada is on our border. If you look at the success of Nebraska volleyball, we have had a lot of Midwest kids, especially from the state of Nebraska, but we had Greichaly Cepero come in from Puerto Rico, and Amber Holmquist from the state of Texas. Lisa and Nancy were from Iowa. We have some young women from Indiana right now. Jen Saleamua is another one who is not from the Midwest. We will always recruit Nebraska first and the surrounding states, but we need to be able to supplement that with great athletes from around the country, and in this case, the continent, who want to come to Nebraska and live in the Midwest and be in a college town.

 

On if the freshman will make an immediate impact

Megan will probably go in as our third middle blocker. With the libero now, you have to either have a couple of liberos in there or four middle blockers. We will have three middle blockers next year. Megan will be our third middle, depending on how her club team does and how she develops. She’s an injury away from being on the court. Sarah has the experience to come in and have an immediate impact. She’s played at a high level, against the best players in the world. Her biggest adjustment will be leaving home.

 

On recruiting Sarah Pavan

You never think you don’t have a chance until a recruit tells you “No”. Obviously, recruiting against a program like Stanford and all of the other programs that you go against, it creates a lot of doubt. But California and Stanford are not for everybody. As soon as we had Sarah on campus, I had a feeling that a place like this would appeal to her. She’s a Midwest-type of kid and her family is great; they’re very close and I think they felt very comfortable here at Nebraska. Stanford is a long ways from Kitchener, Ontario. You never know in recruiting, what is going to fit together. You always hang in there, and we are very happy that she felt comfortable here.