All Huskers

Nebraska Softball's Jordy Frahm, Ava Kuszak Earn More Preseason Recognition

The two seniors received additional honors from USA Softball and D1 Softball on Wednesday.
Maren Angus-Coombs|
Ava Kuszak makes contact on a pitch for a double.
Ava Kuszak makes contact on a pitch for a double. | Amarillo Mullen

Two more prestigious preseason accolades were announced on Wednesday, and two Nebraska Cornhusker softball players were included.

Jordy Frahm and Ava Kuszak were both named to USA Softball's Player of the Year Top 50 Watchlist, in addition to earning Preseason All-American honors from D1 Softball.

Nebraska was one of four Big Ten schools to have at least one student-athlete on the USA Softball list and one of three to have at least two.

Frahm and Kuszak led the Huskers to a Super Regional last season, where they lost in three games to the Tennessee Lady Vols in Knoxville. They recorded the two highest batting averages on the team at .462 and .412, respectively, which rank first and seventh in Nebraska softball history.

The two seniors also finished in the top 10 in school history in batting average, runs, home runs, extra-base hits, RBI, total bases and slugging percentage.

Frahm is no stranger to the USA Softball Watchlists. Last season, she was on the Top 53 Watchlist and advanced to the top 25, top 10 and top three ballots. Bri Ellis of Arkansas was named the Player of the Year.

Kuszak, however, finds her name on the list for the first time in her career. She was an All-Big Ten and NFCA All-Mountain Region first-team honoree last year.

D1 Softball also named Frahm and Kuszak to its Preseason All-American Teams. The two were previously named to the publication's Preseason D100 Overall Players List.

Frahm was named to the First Team and Kuszak was named to the Second Team.

Frahm was named the No. 2 player in the nation, the second-ranked pitcher and two-way player going into the season, while Kuszak was the 24th-ranked player and the fourth-ranked shortstop.

The 2026 Top 50 Watch List draws from 24 universities representing five athletic conferences with 18 players coming from Texas (five), Oklahoma (five), Texas Tech (four), and Florida State (four). Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, LSU, UCLA and Oregon each have three. Nebraska is one of three universities with two representatives and 11 schools have one.

The Top 25 Finalists for the 2026 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award will be announced on April 29. The Top 10 Finalists will be revealed on May 13, with the Top 3 being released on May 18. The 2026 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year will be announced before the NCAA Women’s College World Series (WCWS).

More From Nebraska On SI

Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.

Published | Modified
Maren Angus-Coombs
MAREN ANGUS-COOMBS

Maren Angus-Coombs was born in Los Angeles and raised in Nashville, Tenn. She is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and has been a sports writer since 2008. She has been covering college softball since 2016 and spent the 2023 season covering Husker Softball for Hail Varsity. In addition to All Huskers, she is a staff writer for the Los Angeles Sports Report.

Home/Softball