COLUMBIA, Mo. - Under Larissa Anderson, the Missouri softball team embraced the role of the underdog.
Anderson quickly helped the program rebound in 2019, her first season, after a decade's success as one of the premier programs in college softball was set back by coaching changes and a locker room not fully united. After taking eventual national champions UCLA to a winner-take-all game in the 2019 regionals, Anderson and her coaching staff knew it was just a matter of time before Missouri would return to the Super Regionals.
Picked to finish eighth in the Southeastern Conference's preseason coaches poll, the Tigers are the No. 8 overall seed in this year's NCAA Tournament, firmly back in the national conversation as a contender after sweeping last weekend's regional by allowing zero runs and just two hits in 20 innings.
"(The players) have been wanting that," Anderson said Wednesday. "And that's the difference, that they've felt like they've been disrespected for the last few years, and not getting the accolades and not getting the respect that they felt like they deserved. And now it's finally like, 'We've been telling you this all along, we deserve to be an 8 seed.'"
But this weekend, in order to advance to the seventh Women's College World Series in program history and the first since 2011, Missouri (41-15) will have to lean into being the favorite, the ones expected to win, and carry home-field advantage against James Madison (37-1) beginning with an 8 p.m. first pitch in today's opener.
Tickets sold out Thursday morning.
"It's always a goal every year that we have, to make it to the World Series, but there have been some years where it's more realistic than others," senior catcher Hatti Moore said. "This year it's one of those things where we know we can do it, so if we don't, it'd be really devastating.
"So it's just trusting ourselves and believing in one another, and all of us being on the same page has made a huge difference this year compared to the past."
Today's game will be televised on ESPNU, with Missouri as the home team. Saturday's Game 2 will start at 6 p.m. on ESPNU with the Tigers as the visitors, and Sunday's if-necessary Game 3 will start at either 11 a.m. or 1 p.m. on an ESPN channel to be decided, with the home team determined by coin flip.
James Madison is a formidable opponent, arriving in Columbia with the nation's longest winning streak, which reached 27 games after JMU swept through the Knoxville, Tenn. regional.
The Dukes are an old Colonial Athletic Association foe of Anderson and the Hofstra Pride, where she coached for 17 years before joining Missouri. JMU has won seven consecutive CAA regular-season titles, made the Super Regionals in 2016 and '19 and won 50-plus games in three of the last five full seasons.
"JMU is going to come in here and want to destroy our entire season, so we can't take them lightly," Anderson said Wednesday. "We have to make sure that we stay focused and we counter-attack and we make adjustments and we go out and we try to be the aggressor."
Early scoring has been one of Missouri's keys this season. The Tigers are 19-7 when scoring in the first inning and 34-4 when leading after four innings. Saturday's regional semifinal against Northern Iowa was one of the few times this season Missouri did not score in the first three innings, or the first time through the order, before breaking through on a Kim Wert solo home run in the fourth.
Odicci Alexander will start Game 1 for the Dukes, and pitch as many innings as she can this weekend. A two-way player who also hits .350 at the plate, Alexander threw 22 of JMU's 24 innings in Knoxville, striking out 30 and allowing eight earned runs on 17 hits. She is 14-0 with a 1.04 ERA in 101 innings across 15 starts, 11 of which were complete games, with 168 strikeouts recorded against just 23 walks. Opponents are hitting .134 against Alexander this season.
At the plate, Kate Gordon is JMU's offensive engine. A .397 hitter, 30 of her 50 hits this season have gone for extra bases, including a team-high 18 home runs, and her 55 RBI are 20 more than the next closest hitter. She hit just 2-for-11 in the Knoxville regional, but one of the hits was the deciding three-run homer in a 3-1 win against No. 9 seed Tennessee.
Sara Jubas (.418 batting average, 10 homers) and Madison Naujokas (.339, 23-for-23 on stolen bases) are also players to watch for the Dukes.