Our latest Scholar Athlete of the Week hails from Brighton High School as the Bruins and star outside hitter Lucrezia Pavan hope to continue making school history in her senior year.

Lucrezia Pavan is now a Section V champion, hoping to become a state champion, and if you watch her play, even for just a minute, it’s pretty obvious what makes her so dominant on the hardwood. 

“Every single ball she wants to smash through the floor,” said Brighton head coach Andrew Guthrie. “Not just score a point. She wants to put holes in the floor.”

Pavan has been on varsity since eighth grade. Now a senior leader who stacked up over 1000 kills in her career. 

“She is the leader of our pack,” said junior Charlotte Goldfeder. “I can’t put her in any other words.”

But the Brighton captain had to wait until her senior year to hoist a Section V championship, the program’s first.

“It meant, honestly, the world, we have been working so hard as, like, a team in general,” Pavan said. “Just in general, volleyball means so much to me. So I’m just so happy that I got to win with this team. And they’re like my family.”

Pavan gets at least one more weekend with that group when the Bruins head to the state semifinals. 

“A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, especially as a senior,” Pavan said. “It’s my last year and it’s an amazing way to end. And I’m just so happy that I got to do it.”

But win or lose this Friday, Lucrezia and the Bruins have already made Brighton school history and an impression that’ll last a lifetime. 

“I’m going to miss her a lot,” Guthrie said. “She’s the one that brings them together and is like, look, ladies, we’ve seen this before. We’ve done it before. Let’s just go do it again.”

Pavan will take her talents to Division II Bentley next fall. 

“I loved the location and I want to study business finance, so it was a perfect fit for me,” Pavan said.

Lucrezia and the Brighton Bruins will head to Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls this Friday for Class AA state semifinal play.