Associate Head Coach Lori Sippel is a truly accomplished player and coach. She has extensive experience, including on the international level, where she is one of only 133 worldwide members of the International Softball Federation Hall of Fame. As a head coach, she most recently guided Team Canada to a fourth-place finish at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China, Canada's best finish ever.

Arguably the most dominant pitcher in Nebraska history, Sippel competed for the Huskers from 1985 to 1988, earning All-America honors twice as well as academic All-America honors and a nomination for the prestigious Honda Award. Her success as a player has translated into the coaching field, where she is widely regarded as one of the top pitching coaches in the nation, as well as one of the top international coaches as the head coach of Team Canada.

Sippel has developed three All-America pitchers at Nebraska, including Peaches James in 2004. Jenny Voss (1998) and Leigh Ann Walker (2000) have also earned All-America honors under Sippel's tutelage. Sippel will be working with another All-American in 2010 in Robin Mackin. Mackin was a third-team NFCA All-American in 2007 at Fresno State, but will have the opportunity to work extensively with Sippel for the first time in 2010, as she missed nearly all of the 2009 season - her first in Lincoln - after undergoing shoulder surgery.

Over the past 10 seasons, the Husker pitching staff has compiled at least 350 strikeouts eight times, while posting eight of the top nine single-season marks in school history. NU broke the single-season record in 2001 when the staff tossed 502 strikeouts. Also in 2001, Walker increased her career total to 858 strikeouts, breaking Sippel's 13-year-old NU record of 838. In 2004, James topped that mark, finishing her career with a remarkable 947 punch outs, including a school-record 394 strikeouts in 2004. Another of Sippel's prized pupils, Ashley DeBuhr fell just short of breaking James' record in 2007, finishing a stellar career with 936 strikeouts while averaging the most strikeouts per seven innings of any pitcher in school history. In 2009, Molly Hill finished her career with more than 700 strikeouts, becoming only the sixth Husker pitcher to reach the plateau. Five of the other six were coached by Sippel, while the sixth is Sippel herself, who struck out a then-school-record 838 batters in her illustrious career.

Under Sippel's instruction, James improved each season and became one of the top pitchers in the nation. James was drafted by the Texas Thunder of the National Pro Fastpitch League, where she was an all-star and finished with a 13-3 record and a 0.88 ERA in 2004, shortly after completing her Husker career.

In 2005, DeBuhr became just the second player in school history to record 300 strikeouts in a season when she struck out a Nebraska sophomore-record 335 batters. Under Sippel's tutelage, DeBuhr showed remarkable improvement from her freshman campaign where she threw only 36.2 innings to earn second-team All-Big 12 honors in 2005. A year later, DeBuhr continued to flourish, as she struck out 304 batters to become the only player in school history to record 300 strikeouts in more than one season. DeBuhr finished the season with a 26-10 record and a 1.50 ERA while tossing 12 shutouts in 32 starts.

DeBuhr was not the only Husker hurler to benefit from Sippel's expertise in 2006. Hill also excelled and posted a record of 18-2 to set the school record with a .900 winning percentage as a freshman. Under Sippel's instruction, Hill was able to contribute immediately at the Division I level after pitching in the smallest class of high school softball in Nebraska.

The Huskers boasted one of the top staffs in the country in 2006, finishing with a team ERA of 1.65, 17 shutouts and 476 strikeouts, the second-highest total in school history. Sippel helped DeBuhr rank 22nd in the nation in strikeouts per seven innings (9.3), 23rd in wins (26) and 44th in ERA (1.50). As a staff, NU ranked ninth in winning percentage and 20th in ERA.

With Sippel's help, the staff topped nearly all of those totals in 2007, while finishing ninth in the nation in ERA. Hill showed dramatic improvement, finishing as just the third underclassman in Big 12 history to post the league's lowest ERA while finishing seventh in the nation with a 1.05 ERA. DeBuhr and Hill also combined to rank among the national leaders in every NCAA category.

After missing most of the 2008 season while preparing Team Canada for the Beijing Olympics, Sippel helped Nebraska post the second-best staff ERA in the Big 12 in 2009. Hill earned first-team All-Big 12 honors, as she finished fourth in overall ERA, but led the conference in ERA in league-only games. Overall, during the competitive Big 12 season, Sippel's staff allowed nearly one fewer run per game than any other team.

Sippel has coached more All-Big 12 selections than any other coach in the Big 12. Since the league was formed in 1996, a conference-high 16 pitchers have earned All-Big 12 status in only 14 years, including a Big 12-best 12 first-team selections.

In addition to tutoring the Husker pitchers, Sippel works with all phases of the program, including coaching the outfielders, recruiting, film study and administration. Sippel was recognized for her contributions to the program when she was promoted to associate head coach on Aug. 5, 2002. Sippel had served as an assistant coach for the previous 13 seasons.

"Lori is an elite pitching instructor in a category with a select few," NU Head Coach Rhonda Revelle said. "But she is more than a pitching coach. She is a coach in all aspects of this program."

A two-time All-American as a player at NU, Sippel holds four NU single-season and five career records. On April 9, 1986, she threw the first seven-inning perfect game in NU history with a 2-0 win over Drake. It stood as the only seven-inning perfect game in Husker history until Peaches James tossed a perfect game against Oklahoma on May 14, 2004, under Sippel's tutelage.

As a freshman in 1985, Sippel won Big Eight Tournament MVP honors, as the Huskers claimed their second-ever league title. That season, the Huskers made their third appearance in the WCWS and had a school-best second-place finish. Sippel opened the 1985 Series with a no-hitter against Louisiana Tech and was 2-2 in the NCAA Tournament.

In 1987 and 1988, Sippel captained the Huskers to two more College World Series appearances, where Nebraska finished third and fifth, respectively. Sippel claimed two more conference tournament MVP awards.

Sippel was a first-team CoSIDA Academic All-American, the GTE Academic All-American Softball Player of the Year and a Honda Award nominee in 1988. On April 30, 1995, Sippel's No. 16 jersey became the first retired by the Nebraska softball program.

A 13-year member of the Canadian National Team, Sippel was inducted into the Canadian Softball Hall of Fame in 1993. In 1994 she helped the Canadians qualify for the 1996 Olympics with a fourth-place finish at the World Tournament, and in 1990 she was on the team that finished sixth at the World Tournament.

Sippel played for Canada in the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Columbus, Ga., in softball's debut as an Olympic sport. She helped 3-4 Canada to a fifth-place finish. Sippel was also involved with the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, and the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, serving as a color commentator for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's softball telecasts.

After hanging up her cleats following the 1996 Olympics, Sippel came out of playing retirement in 1998 to compete for Canada in the World Championships in Japan. Sippel pitched a one-hit shutout and struck out 12 against Italy in the fifth-place game to qualify Canada for its second straight Olympic Games. She again retired from Team Canada in 1999, and her Canadian jersey has since been retired.

Sippel then moved into a coaching role with Team Canada and accomplished much with the squad after being named head coach in March of 2005. The Canadians finished second to the United States at the 2005 Pan-American Qualifying Tournament in December 2005 and Sippel guided Team Canada to a 2-1 upset victory of Team USA at the World Cup of Softball on July 19, the Americans' first loss in international play since 2002.

In the summer of 2006, Sippel guided the Canadians to an Olympic berth by virtue of a fifth-place finish at the World Championship in Beijing, China. Team Canada also added a second-place finish at the Canada Cup, as well as a third-place finish at the II World Cup of Softball, where Sippel's team defeated traditional power Australia in back-to-back games to earn third place.

After leading Team Canada to one win shy of a medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Sippel earned the distinction of participating in the Olympics as both a player and a coach, a remarkable accomplishment considering softball was not added as an Olympic sport until 1996.

Sippel's international legacy grew larger in 2005 when she was one of three Canadians selected for induction into the International Softball Federation Hall of Fame. Sippel was formally inducted into the Hall of Fame at the 2006 Canada Cup.

In the spring of 1997, Sippel and Revelle were both inducted into the Nebraska Softball Hall of Fame. A true testament to her accomplishments, Sippel is enshrined in the hall of fames of her alma mater, her native country and at the most elite international level.

An international guest speaker, Sippel graduated from NU in 1988 with a degree in special education. She returned to her alma mater in 1990, after serving one season as an assistant coach at Kansas.