The Wildcats' Big Ten title and World Series Championship runner-up finish in 2006 marked perhaps one of the greatest seasons in Northwestern softball history. But their recent achievements would not be nearly as legendary without the standard of success set by their predecessors. Behind stalwart pitching and staunch leadership, the Wildcats teamed for four-straight Big Ten titles from 1984-87.

Former NCAA single-season and career strikeout record holder Lisa Ishikawa-Sliwa hurled a conference-record 219 strikeouts in 1984 - a tally that still stands as the highest count in league history. Blazing the trail by which all of today's pitchers are judged, Ishikawa-Sliwa was the benchmark of collegiate pitching during the early years of NCAA softball. As a freshman in 1984, she set the NCAA single-season strikeout record with 469 and she concluded her career with the then-NCAA record of 1,200 whiffs. A three-time All-American who pitched Northwestern to four Big Ten championships and three Women's College World Series berths, Ishikawa-Sliwa concluded her career with a 0.47 ERA and 97 wins. In the spring of 2006, she was named to the NCAA's 25th Anniversary Team.

The Wildcats' ascendance to the league and national forefront was piloted by three-time Big Ten Coach of the Year Sharon Drysdale. Northwestern posted scores of wins on the national scene during Drysdale's tenure including three-consecutive Women's College World Series appearances from 1984-86 and spots in the regional playoffs in 1987 and 2000. The Wildcats took third place at the CWS in 1984, fifth in 1985 and seventh in 1986. Under her tutelage, the Wildcats put together 13 30-win seasons, including six in a row from 1982-87. The only other Big Ten program to accomplish that feat is Michigan.

Following Drysdale's 500th career win in 1994, she was inducted into the National Softball Coaches Association's Hall of Fame, and upon her retirement in 2001, Northwestern renamed its field to Sharon J. Drysdale Field. She closed out her coaching career with a 640-512-3 record at Northwestern.

Big Ten 25 Years of Women's Championships

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