Audra Larson joined the Little Rock soccer program alongside head coach Mark Foster in March 2018. Larson brings a successful background as both a coach and a player to the Trojans and works primarily with the goalkeepers.
In her role as the first assistant coach, Larsen assists in all aspects of the program. She has guided the Trojans to at least one win in Sun Belt Tournament play in three of her four seasons with the 2020 and 2021 seasons ending on penalty kicks in the quarterfinal round.
During the 2021 season, Larson coached Little Rock to nine clean sheets on the year while ranking 81st nationally and second in the Sun Belt with a .400 shutout percentage. The Trojans also ranked 98th nationally and second in the league with a 1.028 goals against average
Larson guided the Trojans to four clean sheets during the COVID-impacted 2020 season as the team ranked 81st nationally and second in the Sun Belt with an .816 save percentage while ranking 86th nationally and fourth in the league by averaging 5.07 saves per game. Little Rock’s 1.081 goals against average ranked third in the Sun Belt and 135th nationally while she was responsible for Morgan Smocovich receiving second team all-conference honors.
Thanks to Larson’s guidance, Little Rock recorded six straight unbeaten matches and eight clean sheets during the 2019 season. The savvy Trojans ranked 13th nationally and led the Sun Belt with a league-best 6.53 fouls per game and her coaching led Julia Edholm to receive All-Sun Belt Second Team honors.
Little Rock made its first NCAA Tournament appearance and won its first Sun Belt Conference Tournament in 2018 as Larson made an immediate impact on the Trojans in her first year as an assistant coach. The Trojans registered 13 clean sheets in a 13-5-4 season that saw eight consecutive unbeaten matches for the Maroon and Silver. Little Rock finished the historic season ranked 55th nationally and second in the Sun Belt with a 0.868 goals against average, ranked 73rd nationally and second in the league with a .813 save percentage and, perhaps most impressively, ranked 23rd nationally while leading the Sun Belt with a .545 shutout percentage. The 2018 season saw a record five Trojans named all-conference with four receiving first team honors. Little Rock had five players named to the conference’s all-tournament team including Jaclyn Purvine receiving MVP honors.
Larson came to Little Rock after spending the past two seasons as an assistant coach at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. In her two years with the Phoenix, she helped guide the team to a 27-10-3 record, including a 12-1-1 mark in Mid-South Conference play. Cumberland held its opponents to a 1.05 goals against average during that span, winning an undefeated conference title in 2017.
She established herself as one of the top goalkeepers in the country during her playing career at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, setting an NCAA record for both men’s and women’s soccer with 68 career shutouts in net. Larson also set the NCAA record for consecutive shutouts with 55 and was a key figure in helping lead the Falcons to the 2012 Division III national championship as a freshman.
For her career, Larson finished with an 88-4-8 record in goal with a 0.24 goals against average and 158 saves in 100 matches, totaling just shy of 8,888 minutes in net. She was an NSCAA second team All-Mid-Atlantic Region and second team All-MAC Commonwealth selection as a senior, earning honorable mention honors as both a sophomore and junior. Larson helped guide Messiah to three conference championships and four postseason appearances, advancing to the Final Four as a senior.
Larson has received her US Soccer D license and United Soccer Coaches Goalkeeping Level I license. She is currently pursuing her US Soccer C license.
A native of Montoursville, Pennsylvania, Larson earned her bachelor’s degree in communications from Messiah in 2016, followed by her master’s degree in sport management from Cumberland in 2017.
