In the midst of the third-longest winning streak in program history, the No. 9 Michigan softball team has emerged from its first 16 conference games unbeaten. The Wolverines (16-0 Big Ten, 40-7 overall) could clinch a sixth-straight Big Ten title when they visit Nebraska this weekend for the first time as conference foes.

The 16th-ranked Cornhuskers (12-4, 35-10) could easily be the biggest hurdle between Michigan and an undefeated Big Ten regular season. The only other top-25 squad in the conference and the first ranked team the Wolverines have faced since March 15, Nebraska could pull to within one game of first place with a three-game sweep.

Barring an unprecedented Michigan collapse down the stretch, the Cornhuskers need a series sweep to challenge for the conference crown, but they have the capacity to do just that. The Big Ten’s newcomers finished third last season and have only improved in 2013. Dangerously thin at pitching when the year began, freshman Emily Lockman has joined Tatum Edwards to create arguably the league’s best pitching duo. The pair have benefitted from their teammates behind them, as Nebraska ranks second in the Big Ten with a .966 fielding percentage.

But Wolverine hitters have stepped up all year regardless of the pitcher, mixing power with seeing-eye base hits to bludgeon foes. The nation’s best offensive team, Michigan averages 7.57 runs per game and has yet to score fewer than five runs in a Big Ten contest. After a month of run rule-shortened games, Michigan coach Carol Hutchins hopes that Nebraska will pose a greater challenge.

“We need to battle,” she said. “We can’t be afraid to lose. I’m excited for the series because I think it’ll be very competitive. That’s what you want going into the postseason.”

Thanks in part to freshman shortstop Sierra Romero, the Wolverines have tallied 359 runs, 104 more than the next-closest conference team, Wisconsin. Romero has 21 home runs and just 20 strikeouts this year and is best in the Big Ten in runs scored (54) and batted in (62). Nebraska will counter with Edwards, whose stellar pitching overshadows a .346 batting average and 11 home runs.

To beat Michigan, the Cornhuskers will have to generate runs against sophomore pitchers Sara Driesenga and Haylie Wagner, a duo that keeps opponents off the scoreboard with a combined 1.80 earned-run average. But the Wolverines’ aces haven’t experienced an atmosphere quite as daunting as Bowlin Stadium this year. Nebraska will host the second-annual World’s Largest Softball Tailgate before Saturday’s contest, an event that promises to draw about 2,000 fans.

“I think it will be an atmosphere comparable to a Super Regional,” Hutchins said. “It’s a big-game environment, and that’s what we need.”

The only coach in the conference besides Hutchins that has been inducted to the NFCA Hall of Fame, Nebraska skipper Rhonda Revelle has masterfully managed one of the youngest rosters in the country. The team’s seven freshman have accounted for 29 extra-base hits and will help the Cornhuskers challenge Michigan’s Big Ten supremacy in the years to come.

But Hutchins and the Wolverines are quick to explain that they aren’t focused on next season, the playoffs or even Sunday’s contest. And if Michigan keeps playing “one-pitch softball,” it can expect to finish the season at the top of the conference once again.