The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Department of Intercollegiate Athletics announced on April 4 the hiring of Audra Larson, who spent the last four seasons (2018-21) as the assistant coach at Little Rock, as the women’s soccer associate head coach.

Larson was hired by Foster at Little Rock in 2018 where she primarily worked with the goalkeepers while assisting in all aspects of the program. 

In her four seasons, Larson helped Little Rock to three Sun Belt Conference Tournament appearances (2018, 2020, and 2021), the program’s first-ever Sun Belt Tournament Championship (2018), the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament (2018) appearance, and a single-season program record 13 wins (2018).

Larsen helped the defense become a staple of the program as she saw the team post 32 shutouts and annually stay the top half of the Sun Belt Concerence in goals against average, save percentage, and shutout percentage. 

Prior to arriving at Little Rock, Larson spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Cumberland University where she guided the program to a 27-10-3 record, including a 12-1-1 record in Mid-South Conference play. Throughout her time at Cumberland, Larsen helped the team average a 1.05 goals against average while helping the team to an undefeated conference season in 2017. 

Larson had a successful playing career at Messiah College where she became one of the top goalkeepers in the country. Larson set an NCAA record for both men’s and women’s soccer with 68 career shutouts.

Larson led Messaih College to a Division III National Championship as a freshman in 2012 while helping her team to three conference championships, four postseason appearances, and reaching the Final Four in her senior season.

Larson was an NSCAA Second Team All-Mid-Atlantic Region honoree and a Second Team All-Commonwealth selection as a senior while earning Honorable Mention honors as a sophomore and junior. 

Larson wrapped up her career with an 88-4-8 record in goal with a remarkable 0.24 goals against average and 158 saves in 100 matches while setting a program record with 8887.23 minutes played in goal. Larson is one of just seven players in program history to play in 100 career matches and the only goalkeeper to do it.

Larson earned her bachelor’s degree in communications from Messiah in 2016 and earned her master’s degree in sports management from Cumberland in 2017.