Friday Five: Honors, schedules and postseason stakes
Nebraska had plenty to track this week, from softball’s Super Regional and men’s hoops scheduling to postseason finishes in golf and track.
It was supposed to be a big night at Bowlin Stadium.
Nebraska softball is hosting the first NCAA Super Regional in program history this weekend, with No. 15 Oklahoma State in Lincoln and a trip to the Women’s College World Series on the line. Game 1 was scheduled for Thursday night at 8 p.m. CT, but lightning and rain forced its suspension until Friday.1
In Omaha, baseball also learned its Friday assignment. The Huskers will face Michigan at 5 p.m. CT in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal round. The Wolverines advanced Thursday evening with a win over Ohio State.
Let’s get into it.
Jordy Frahm and Alexis Jensen keep adding to Nebraska softball’s season
Before Nebraska even got to its Super Regional matchup with Oklahoma State, the national recognition kept coming.
Jordy Frahm was named one of three finalists for USA Softball’s Collegiate Player of the Year on Monday, joining UCLA’s Megan Grant and Florida State’s Isa Torres. It is the second straight season Frahm has made the top three.
Frahm has been one of the best two-way players in the country for a Nebraska team that won the Big Ten regular-season title, the Big Ten Tournament title, a 10th NCAA Regional title and a second straight trip to Super Regionals. At the plate, she leads Nebraska with a .421 batting average and 19 home runs. One more homer would make her the first Husker with multiple 20-home run seasons. She has also driven in 50 runs, scored 57 and carries a 1.364 OPS.
In the circle, she is 19-4 with a 1.15 ERA and 12 saves, tying the Big Ten single-season record. She has struck out 225 batters and walked only 28. Her 16-strikeout performance against Grand Canyon tied her career high and was the most by a Husker in an NCAA Tournament game since 2005.
And she is not the only one getting national attention.
Freshman pitcher Alexis Jensen was named one of three finalists for the NFCA Freshman of the Year Award on Thursday, joining Oklahoma’s Kai Minor and Kendall Wells. The winner will be announced Tuesday, May 26.
Jensen has been asked to grow up quickly this season, and she has. The Gretna native leads all freshmen nationally with 210 strikeouts and 24 wins, both of which also tie Nebraska freshman records. She is 24-2 with a 2.45 ERA and has held opponents to a .205 batting average.
Men’s basketball adds Saint Louis to the preseason
Nebraska men’s basketball added another piece to its 2026-27 schedule this week, announcing a preseason exhibition against Saint Louis on Friday, Oct. 9, at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
Tipoff will be announced later, and the game will be included in season-ticket and student-ticket packages. Single-game ticket details will come later this summer.
This is one of three exhibition games now allowed before the regular season begins Nov. 2, and it fits the approach coach Fred Hoiberg has leaned into: use the preseason for something more useful than a warmup.
“We want to use our exhibition games to prepare us for the start of the season, and I think the BYU exhibition last season helped our team in many ways,” Hoiberg said. “I think this matchup against Saint Louis will be a similar learning experience because of the challenges they present. They ranked in (the) top five in the country in both effective field goal percentage and field goal defense last year and will be one of the favorites again in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Coming off last season, I know Husker fans are excited, and this exhibition matchup will be a good opportunity to be back at PBA in front of our fans.”
Nebraska is coming off a school-record 28 wins and a Sweet 16 run, and the next step is not easing back in. It is figuring out what this team looks like with expectations attached.
Saint Louis should help with that. The Billikens went 29-6 last season, shared the Atlantic 10 regular-season title and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament before losing to eventual national champion Michigan. They return nine players, including three starters.
Nebraska, meanwhile, brings back two of its top three scorers and six letterwinners. Pryce Sandfort returns after averaging 18.1 points and 4.9 rebounds while earning first-team All-Big Ten honors. Braden Frager is also back after winning Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year as a freshman.
Nebraska previously announced a home-and-home exhibition series with BYU, with the Huskers set to make the return trip to Provo on Oct. 16.
And for anyone wanting to spend a little more time with last season, Nebraska will premiere its 2025-26 season documentary, Watch and Dream, on Monday, June 15, at the Rococo Theatre in Lincoln. The event includes player autographs, the documentary premiere and a live Q&A hosted by Kent Pavelka. The documentary will be released on YouTube on June 22.
Rudy Sautron closes a record-setting season
Nebraska men’s golfer Rudy Sautron wrapped up his season Wednesday with one more strong round at the NCAA Marana Regional. Sautron shot a final-round 69, finishing the tournament at 3-under and tied for 25th. That is Nebraska’s best individual finish at an NCAA Regional since Brandon Crick tied for eighth in 2010.
It also capped a season that already belonged in the Nebraska record book.
Sautron, a junior from Reunion Island, France, became the first Husker men’s golfer to earn first-team All-Big Ten honors. He finished the year with a school-record 70.27 stroke average over 41 rounds and closed with 12 consecutive top-25 finishes.
Sautron did not advance to the NCAA Championship, but his season still felt like a clear step forward for Nebraska men’s golf. Not every postseason story has to end with a trophy to be worth noting.
Dyson Wicker adds another Big Ten honor
Nebraska track and field sophomore Dyson Wicker was named the Big Ten Men’s Outdoor Field Athlete of the Championships on Wednesday. Wicker earned the honor after winning the pole vault title at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships with a clearance of 5.72 meters, or 18 feet, 9 1/4 inches. It was his second career Big Ten pole vault title and completed a season sweep after he also won the indoor title earlier this year.
That indoor title came with a school-record mark of 5.79 meters, or 19 feet.
Nebraska also had Donna Douglas named its women’s sportsmanship honoree, while Michael Buchanan earned the honor on the men’s side.
Nebraska soccer sets its 2026 schedule
Nebraska soccer released its 2026 schedule this week, with 19 matches total: 10 at home and nine away.
The Huskers open Aug. 5 at Colorado State, then travel to Louisville on Aug. 12 before settling in for a four-game home stretch. That run includes South Dakota, Notre Dame, Alabama and Omaha.
The Big Ten schedule starts Sept. 10 at home against Indiana. Nebraska then travels to Iowa before hosting defending Big Ten champion Washington on Sept. 20.
The October home slate is worth circling. Nebraska will host Wisconsin on Oct. 4, then later gets three straight home matches against Illinois, USC and UCLA before closing the regular season at Purdue on Oct. 30.
That USC-UCLA week will still feel new for a while. The expanded Big Ten has made plenty of schedules look a little strange, and soccer is no exception to that.
The Big Ten Tournament is scheduled for Nov. 4-13, with the NCAA Tournament running Nov. 20-Dec. 14.
We did not have details on the specifics for Friday at the time of scheduling.
My week got very out of hand yesterday, but I always have time for the Friday Five. Thank you.