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A Look Back at the Journey to 2022 Big Ten Champions

A Look Back at the Journey to 2022 Big Ten Champions

When Courtney Wallace proclaimed that the Huskers were going to win the Big Ten Championship on the first day of practice for the 2022 season, it turned a few heads. 

Rhonda Revelle, about to start her 30th season as head coach, was one who turned her head that day. 

“I loved her belief, but I really had to take a gulp because it was such a jump from where we had been to what she had been professing,” Revelle said.

“We were just speaking like it already happened. I thought, ‘Ok. Alright. You are going to put that out there. Then we are going to keep working’.” 

That work led to Wallace's proclamation coming true, as Nebraska won the 2022 Big Ten Tournament. The Huskers receive their championship rings this week and will be recognized at Saturday's football game for claiming their first Big Ten Tournament title. While this weekend's celebration looks back on that title run last May, Nebraska's 2022 season did not get off to a championship start.

Wallace made her bold proclamation at a preseason press conference on Feb. 9, just two days before Nebraska opened its season. With a lofty public goal, the Huskers' opening weekend did not go as planned.

Nebraska opened the season at Northern Iowa. The Huskers played five games inside the UNI Dome, finishing the weekend, 2-3.

The coaches knew the team had the confidence to be successful, but they weren't playing with that confidence. 

“We were careful,” Revelle said. “We were risk-averse, and we all knew it. That was not me saying it. That was us collectively talking, and we even sat down and had quite a long talk after the first weekend at Northern Iowa.” 

"We were careful. We were risk-averse. And we all knew it. That was not me saying it. That was us collectively talking, and we even sat down and had quite a long talk after the first weekend at Northern Iowa."

Rhonda Revelle

Revelle and the coaching staff wanted the Huskers to be aggressive and not be afraid to fail.

“We just had to go for it,” Revelle said. “We knew that, but what are some of the actions that we can just go for? And so, we listed some things. Do not be afraid to swing and miss. Just swing to hit the darn thing. So there were things like that. Like ‘oh wow, I just spoke that into existence’. Or ‘I thought about it and it happened’. And then that starts to build. Then that is when the momentum starts to build.”

The momentum did build as Nebraska won 13 of its next 17 games after the opening weekend. But the Huskers hit another early-season bump in the road when they were swept in a midweek doubleheader at San Diego.

“I think the biggest thing about that day, it was so foreign,” Revelle said of the 4-2 and 4-0 losses to the Toreros. “So, the good news is that it felt so foreign to who we were that you didn’t even know how to talk about it.

"What we knew is that we didn’t want to feel that way again. So, the focus became on being different, so we do not feel that way again. It wasn’t just trying to hash it out, like ‘Why are we feeling this way?’ or ‘What is going on right now?’. We spoke on it enough to say, ‘This isn’t us and we are not going to feel this way’ and moved on.” 

And move on is exactly what Nebraska did, to the tune of an 18-game win streak - the second-longest win-streak in school history - and one that included a 13-0 start to Big Ten play.

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There were many notable victories during the winning streak, including Nebraska's sweep of an abbreviated two-game series at No. 19 Michigan to open conference play. But perhaps no win was more memorable than the 18th and final consecutive victory. On the final day of a three-game series with Minnesota, the Huskers trailed 8-1 in the third inning. With the winning streak in jeopardy, Nebraska came back to tie the game in the fifth inning on Peyton Glatter's grand slam, and the Huskers went on to win the game 11-8, completing the biggest come-from-behind victory in program history.

“They were present-minded and focused on the moment,” Revelle said of the comeback. “We didn’t really think ‘we are seven runs behind’. We thought, ‘Get on base. Pass the bat. Let’s start something’. Then, you did not make it too big, you just wanted to do a little bit. And add a little bit. And a little more. Then, Peyton (Glatter) had that big hit. It was a big moment.” 

The 18th win in a row brought with it more attention, as Nebraska entered the national rankings for the first time.

“We were well into the win streak before I realized we were (on a streak),” Revelle said. “And then it became the topic, so we were working on deflecting it and marginalizing it. Just focus on this game. This pitch. We talked a lot about ‘we are excited', ‘our fans are excited’, and that is what they can talk about, but we have to prepare. I thought we did a really good job at that. But every streak is going to end.” 

The Huskers took their 18-game winning streak to Wisconsin for a three-game series. Due of weather, NU faced the Badgers in a doubleheader on Friday. In the series opener, a walk-off single snapped the streak as Wisconsin won, 3-2. The Badgers won game two as well.

Nebraska won the third game of the Wisconsin series, but the next week the Huskers lost a series at Ohio State, falling out of first place in the Big Ten standings for the first time.

While the Huskers were disappointed in losing back-to-back Big Ten series, the team used it as a learning experience.

“In all of those scenarios, you learn from it,” Revelle said. “You learn from losses. You learn from getting back up. You learn from winning on the road. You learn from finishing with a win. They just had things to teach us.”

"In all of those scenarios, you learn from it. You learn from losses. You learn from getting back up. You learn from winning on the road. You learn from finishing with a win. They just had things to teach us."

Rhonda Revelle

Nebraska's final weekend of the regular season did not get off to the start the Huskers had hoped. NU entered the final weekend with a chance to win the Big Ten regular-season title, but a 5-0 loss to Indiana on Friday ultimately squashed those hope. It was a hard loss for the Huskers to accept.

“From my own perspective, that one might have devastated our team the most,” Revelle said. “You could just tell they were hurt. It was almost like there was so much on the line that they almost went paralyzed. And then, the next morning at breakfast, there was just a different resolve around them. You could just see the switch to ‘We are not losing’.

“Every team has that moment. And it was really in that moment like ‘ok, this team just really learned how to battle’. Like, truly battle and battle from start to finish. And I think if you look at moments from the season, that was a real moment. But again, it came after a loss. What do you learn in the losses to help you bounce back to get to victory?” 

Nebraska went on to win the next two games of the series to earn the No. 2 seed for the Big Ten Tournament.

The Huskers felt well prepared for the postseason. Not only had Nebraska been able to learn from some losses, Nebraska had played a series of close games down the stretch.

“All of those games were either one or two run games, but all were close until the end of the game,” Revelle said. “But, I felt like at that point, I felt like we were battle tested and ready to just go blow-for-blow, pitch-for-pitch with any team.” 

Nebraska's received an opening-round bye at the Big Ten Tournament before facing Penn State in the quarterfinals. NU found itself down 1-0 in the second inning to the Nittany Lions but a three-run fifth inning secured a 3-1 Husker victory and a spot in the semifinals. 

Awaiting the Huskers in the semifinals was the Ohio State team that had taken the series from Nebraska just two weeks earlier. The Huskers again fell behind 1-0, but Nebraska came back to tie the game and force extra innings. That set the stage for Olivia Ferrell's walk-off double that sent the Big Red to the championship game.

Awaiting the Huskers in the final was Michigan, the team Nebraska faced to begin conference play eight weeks earlier. Despite being the higher seed, the Huskers were the visiting team in the championship game, giving them a chance to take an early lead for the first time in the tournament, as Cam Ybarra hit a solo home run two batters into the game.

Michigan eventually tied the score and the Wolverines had runners on first and second with no outs in the bottom of the seventh inning. In that moment, Revelle turned to Wallace to deliver the Big Ten Championship she had proclaimed Nebraska would win before the season even began. Wallace came in out of the bullpen and recorded a double play and a pop out to send the game into extra innings. In the top of the eighth, Ybarra - the Big Ten Tournament Most Outstanding Player - delivered again with a two-out, RBI double to put Nebraska on top 2-1. Sydney Gray then added an insurance run with an RBI single.

Leading 3-1, Wallace went out and quickly retired the Wolverines in order in the bottom of the eighth inning. She was the winning pitcher in the championship game, a fitting ending for the player who had predicted it all along.

The victory over Michigan gave Nebraska its first Big Ten Tournament title and marked the 20th conference title in Nebraska history. 

Revelle credits the team and its player-led mentality with helping the Huskers reach their goal of a Big Ten title. 

“Life is filled with moments,” Revelle said. “When the captains walked into my office the summer before the season and said ‘we want to make our standards even higher. We have a good base, but we want to make it even higher, and we are willing to do our part and do our roles as captains. We see how we can all help. We want you to coach. We want to see the coach that we believe you are.’ That was very impactful for me.

“What it said more than anything is that we are in this together. We are one team. We want to get this thing right, and we want this thing to be special. You get players feeling that, you live for that as a coach and it makes you feel like you would move heaven and earth to help them realize their goals because you want to help them feel what they are working toward feeling.” 

The Big Ten Championship gave Nebraska an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament, and the Huskers finished their season at the NCAA Stillwater Regional. 

“It was nice to be there, and we are hungry for more,” Revelle said of last season's NCAA Tournament appearance. “I did feel like we emptied the tank. I felt like that last game there was hardly any fuel left in the tank, and it was a culmination of the emotion of the season and the physicality of the season."

The experience of last season has the Huskers hungry for more in the upcoming 2023 season. But before Nebraska looks ahead, it will take one last moment this weekend to celebrate last year's Big Ten Championship season with the hope that in will propel the program to even more success.

“I think one of the most respectful things you can do in paying homage to a championship team is to continue to bring the same type of effort in the present moment.”

"I think one of the most respectful things you can do in paying homage to a championship team is to continue to bring the same type of effort in the present moment."

Rhonda Revelle
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