June 25 (Bloomberg) -- Nebraska University volleyball player Sarah Pavan was named the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year.

Pavan, who led the Cornhuskers to a 33-1 record and a national title last year, was given the Honda-Broderick Cup during a ceremony at New York's Columbia University, Nebraska said on its Web site.

The award recognizes outstanding athletic achievement as well as team contributions, scholastics and community involvement.

``I was so surprised to find out that I had won,'' Pavan, who has a 4.00 grade-point average in biochemistry, said in a statement. ``Growing up, I watched Mia Hamm and Rebecca Lobo, and to be grouped with them is amazing. These are huge names in women's athletics, and I'm humbled to be in the same category.''

Hamm, a member of women's World Cup and Olympic championship soccer teams, and Lobo, a basketball All-American and former player in the Women's National Basketball Association, are previous Honda winners.

Kylee Hanavan, a soccer player at Metropolitan State College in Denver, was named Division II's top female athlete, and tennis player Liz Bondi of Indiana's DePauw University won the Division III award.

The Rutgers women's basketball team, which lost to Tennessee in the final of the National Collegiate Athletic Association title game, earned the Irv Grossman Award of Merit for achievement in increasing appreciation for women's college sports.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mason Levinson in New York at mlevinson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 25, 2007 17:24 EDT