COLUMBIA - When Missouri softball bowed out of the Norman regional in the championship game last week with a 7-0 loss to the host Sooners, the athletic department moved quickly.
Players, along with interim head coach Gina Fogue and staff, were informed the Tigers would look elsewhere for a new head coach after the loss. Missouri announced Monday it would conduct a national search without the use of a search firm.
Six days later, Larissa Anderson was named the 10th coach in program history. Anderson has spent the last four seasons at Hofstra University of the Colonial Athletic Association, where she compiled a 125-69-1 (.644) record with two CAA titles and two NCAA regional appearances, one in 2015 and one in 2018. The Pride went 1-2 in the Columbia, S.C., regional this year, and finished the regular season with a 41-14 record and reached No. 24 in national rankings.
"I am very proud and honored to be the next head softball coach at Mizzou," Anderson said in a press release. "I want to thank Gina (Fogue) and her staff for their loyalty and dedication to Mizzou Softball. Our future is very bright and I'm ready to get to work to start a new era of Mizzou Softball."
"I am thrilled that we were able to recruit Larissa Anderson to Mizzou and am confident that she will build upon the great Tiger Softball tradition that has been established over the last 44 seasons in Columbia," athletic director Jim Sterk said in a release. "She is highly-respected within the coaching community, enjoys an outstanding reputation for player development and has had tremendous success at Hofstra, first as an assistant coach, and then for the last four seasons as head coach.
"I look forward to watching Larissa build upon our great tradition and compete for postseason appearances and championships for many years to come."
Anderson, a 1997 graduate of Gannon University in Erie, Pa., spent the previous 13 seasons as an assistant head coach at Hofstra under Bill Edwards, who put the Pride on the national map. Anderson was an outfielder at Gannon, and served as an assistant coach there for a year in 1998 before taking on the same role at Long Island University-Post for two seasons.
Anderson has previously served as chair of the NFCA Ethics Committee from 2009-13, and currently serves as its fourth vice president on the NFCA executive board and as a member of the NFCA Recruiting Committee and the NFCA Hall of Fame Committee.
Throughout her career, Anderson has made her mark with a focus on pitching and a strong defense. She has guided Hofstra pitchers to nine CAA Pitcher of the Year honors, and the Pride were consistently among the nation's best in fielding percentage, and finished sixth this year with a .979 mark, or 33 errors in 55 games.