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Nebraska’s Jordy Frahm is living a dream, and she’s ready for one more championship chapter
She’s 23 now, and much around her has changed since the last time Jordy Frahm appeared in the Women’s College World Series.
Faces have come and gone in softball. An injury extended Frahm’s career by one season. She got married.
But the dream remains.
Last Saturday, another chapter came to life as Frahm walked to home plate, the leadoff batter in the top of the first inning with a trip to Oklahoma City on the line for Nebraska at its home park.
On a sun-drenched afternoon in Game 2 of Super Regional play, a helicopter, painted red with a white “N” on the rotor mast, circled above the field that Frahm visited as a kid from her home up the highway in Papillion, Neb. Glove-carrying girls draped in Frahm jerseys watched throughout the crowd of 3,451. Fans jostled for a few inches of space on packed berms in left field.
Since she opted three years ago to transfer home to Nebraska after winning two national championships at Oklahoma, every expectation for Nebraska softball, every idea, every dream has expanded.
Named this week as the player of the year by USA Softball and the NFCA and a first-team NFCA All-American — the 14th player to earn the honor four times in a career — Frahm (formerly Jordy Bahl) has energized the Nebraska program as a two-way star and ignited new passion for the sport in her home state.
“From the day that she stepped on this campus, she raised the level of intensity and focus,” Nebraska coach Rhonda Revelle said. “And she brings that with her wherever she goes. It’s just how she’s wired.”
Riding a school-record and nation-leading 26-game winning streak, Nebraska (51-6) opens play in the WCWS Thursday night at 9:30 (ET) against Arkansas. The Huskers, in their first visit to Devon Park since 2013, rate among the favorites, with perennial power OU absent and 2025 finalists Texas and Texas Tech in the bracket opposite Nebraska.
With Frahm and freshman pitching star Alexis Jensen as a 1-2 punch, Nebraska in February split two games against the Longhorns and beat the Red Raiders while playing the most difficult nonconference schedule in the country. Then the Huskers rolled to a 23-1 Big Ten mark and beat WCWS-bound UCLA for the third time in four meetings to win the conference tournament.
By the time Frahm relieved Jensen in the fifth and final inning Saturday, the Huskers had embraced their destiny. They dispatched Oklahoma State 8-1 and 9-1 in the Super Regional.
NEBRASKA IS HEADING TO THEIR 8TH WCWS 🥳#RoadToWCWS x 🎥 ESPN / @HuskerSoftballpic.twitter.com/s6u8OkKqEB
— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) May 23, 2026
Top-seeded Alabama or a fifth matchup against UCLA and record-breaking slugger Megan Grant awaits in Oklahoma City after the Arkansas game.
“I feel like we’re going to do just fine,” said Frahm, the Most Outstanding Player at the 2023 WCWS. “We’ve played in big moments, high pressure, energizing settings this year. And we just keep our heads down, and we keep working.”
The Huskers are not a “Jordy show,” said Revelle, the head coach since 1992. But Frahm’s massive impact over the last three years is undeniable.
The Gatorade National Player of the Year out of Papillion-La Vista High School in 2021, Frahm had committed to the home-state Huskers as a freshman in 2017. But with Revelle under investigation in 2019 after allegations by players of mistreatment and a toxic culture, Frahm flipped to Oklahoma.
Revelle was exonerated. But damage extended beyond the loss of Frahm. Other high school stars left the state.
When Frahm chose to come home, many of them followed. They built a core of leaders for this 2026 squad, emboldened by their long paths home and deep connections that predated their college careers.
Bella Bacon, an Omahan, transferred to Nebraska from Purdue in the same cycle as Frahm.
“When people got into the portal, (they) would take a call from me because we have Jordy on the roster,” Revelle said. “We’ve just kind of systematically been able to add pieces and build it around Jordy.”
"I love that woman." 🥹#RoadToWCWS x 🎥 ESPN2 / @HuskerSoftballpic.twitter.com/tSkjEJ4SgY
— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) May 22, 2026
Frahm suffered an ACL tear in the 2024 season opener. She redshirted, but the momentum did not slow.
Kacie Hoffmann and twins Lauren and Hannah Camenzind, also from Omaha, transferred home two years ago after two seasons at Arkansas. Ava Kuszak, a Colorado high school graduate who played club softball with the Nebraskans, joined the Huskers in 2024 from Wisconsin.
All of them play key roles.
“They were girls that, in the beginning, wanted to be Huskers,” said Todd Peterson, Frahm’s high school coach. “Jordy coming back — and looking at what they could build — it made a lot of sense.”
Last year, catcher Jesse Farrell came from UNLV. Her 17 home runs rank second to Frahm in 2026. And Frahm’s freshman roommate at OU from 2022, Hannah Coor, jumped aboard. In the Super Regional clincher, Coor homered, doubled and made a diving catch in center field.
“I don’t think I’ll ever have the right words for this feeling,” Coor said after the latest win. “But it’s very surreal, and I couldn’t be more proud to represent Nebraska with these guys.”
From Yorba Linda, Calif., Coor said she told her parents, upon deciding to leave Oklahoma for Nebraska last year, that she didn’t care if she won another softball game. She wanted to take a “leap of faith” in her final collegiate season.
“I found that here,” Coor said. “And we also win, which is pretty cool. But that’s just an added blessing. I was really just looking for my last year to be filled with joy. And (to play) with my friend Jordy.”
Revelle aims to stay out of the Huskers’ way. They are led by the players. The head coach and her staff have corrected effort and focus only a few times since the preseason in January, Revelle said. Twelve seniors and 11 Huskers competing for their home state on a 23-player roster keep this team on track.
Frahm and Coor spoke to their teammates Monday about playing in Oklahoma City at a 13,000-seat stadium.
The setting is new. But nothing else has to change.
“In the biggest moments, we just lean on each other,” Kuszak said.
Frahm stands at the center for Nebraska. Her 90 career wins in the circle instill confidence in teammates who’ve not played on this stage.
She’s ready to experience another chapter of the dream.
“I couldn’t have scripted this,” Frahm said. “Nobody could have scripted this.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Nebraska Cornhuskers, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Nebraska Cornhuskers, College Football, College Sports, Women's College Sports
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