Tabbed as a preseason dark horse to advance to the WCWS by ESPN.com, Nebraska
began to pull together late in the season, as the Huskers nearly made a run to a Big 12 title.
The Huskers advanced to the Big 12 Tournament title game by winning three straight games,
including an upset of No. 7 Oklahoma. Needing a victory to earn an automatic berth to a
14th straight NCAA Tournament, Nebraska fell to eventual national runner-up Texas A&M.
Speaking of success in the conference tournament, the Huskers advanced to the Big
12 Championship game seven times in the tournament’s 15-year history while Nebraska
was a member of the league. Overall, Revelle’s Husker squads recorded a regular-season
or postseason championship or runner-up finish 13 times in their 16 years as a member
of the Big 12.
The Huskers made it back to the postseason in 2009, finishing 35-19 and earning a trip to
the Knoxville (Tenn.) Regional. Nebraska posted a 10-game improvement in the win column
from 2008 to 2009 while finishing fifth in a tough Big 12 Conference that sent seven teams
to the NCAA Tournament. Revelle picked up her 650th win at Nebraska in the Huskers'
win in the first game of the NCAA Tournament, while four of her players earned All-Big
12 accolades, seven earned academic All-Big 12 honors and Molly Hill earned a repeat
selection as a CoSIDA Academic All-American.
Nebraska added an academic All-American for the third straight season in 2010, when
Robin Mackin was a second-team selection. The Huskers also had a program-record five
players selected to the academic all-district first or second team, while producing three
all-region selections on the field. As a team, Nebraska produced a 30-win season and
qualified for the NCAA Tournament. The Huskers were sent to the Seattle Regional hosted
by defending national champion Washington. NU lost a pair of 1-0 heartbreakers to North
Carolina in the postseason and picked up an elimination victory over North Dakota State.
NU made the postseason with a roster that featured 11 first- or second-year players.
The Huskers had a breakthrough season under Revelle in 2011, when she challenged
her team to put Nebraska softball back on the national map. Her team accomplished just
that, posting the best start in school history, while being ranked among the nation's top-25
teams in every weekly poll during the season. Nebraska finished with a 41-14 record in
2011, winning 40 games and advancing to an NCAA Regional final for the first time in five
seasons. Along the way, Nebraska rose to 11th in the polls - its highest ranking in eight
seasons - while defeating No. 1 Florida in mid-March to give the program its first-ever
victory over a No. 1 team.
The Huskers went on to finish with eight wins over ranked teams in 2011, including four
wins over top-10 opponents. Nebraska also posted 15 wins against teams that qualified for
the NCAA Tournament, including a 5-4 record against five teams that ended their season
at the Women's College World Series. On an individual basis, Taylor Edwards earned thirdteam All-America honors in 2011. Edwards was the nation's only freshman position player
named to an All-America team, while she also became the first Husker catcher to earn
All-America accolades. Edwards was also one of 25 finalists - and the only freshman - for
the USA Softball Player-of-the-Year award.
In the classroom, Ashley Hagemann and Nikki Haget each earned academic All-America
honors. Hagemann was a second-team selection, while Haget garnered third-team honors.
The two selections marked the fourth straight season the Huskers had produced an academic
All-American, while increasing their nation-leading total to 29 all-time softball academic
All-Americans. Revelle has produced 13 academic All-America selections at Nebraska, a
total that ranks second nationally in Revelle's 21-year tenure. Revelle also orchestrates
Nebraska's defensive efforts, and the Huskers posted the third-best fielding percentage
(.970) in school history in 2011. In 2013, Nebraska set a school record by turning 49 double
plays, the third-highest total in NCAA history. The Huskers also boasted a .967 fielding
percentage in 2013.
In 2012, Revelle guided Nebraska to a third-place finish in its first year as a member
of the Big Ten Conference. Although the Huskers' record wasn't enough to get them into
the NCAA Tournament, Nebraska once again played one of the most challenging nonconference schedules in the country. Ten of the Huskers' 13 non-conference losses came
against teams that made the NCAA Tournament, including four losses to teams that won
an NCAA Regional. Nebraska