Softball
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- tflowers@csun.edu
2015 Big West Conference Coach of the Year
Tairia Flowers, who has enjoyed success as an outstanding collegiate player, an Olympic gold medal winner and a successful collegiate assistant coach, will begin her 11th season as Matadors’ head coach in 2021.
Flowers won her 250th game as CSUN head coach on Feb. 16, 2020 when the Matadors defeated CSU Bakersfield 6-2. She will begin the upcoming season with a 259-263 record and is second in school history in career victories.
2020 was cut short due to COVD-19, but the Matadors were playing well and had the most victories among the Big West schools in the non-conference season as CSUN posted a 16-8 mark. Megan Stevens was leading the Big West in doubles (10), walks (15), slugging percentage (.889), and on-base percentage (.548) when the schedule was halted.Â
The 2019 campaign featured Stevens and Jillian James both earning NFCA All-Region honors with both being selected first team All-Conference. Stevens ended 2019 in the top 25 in Division I in six different offensive categories.
2018 saw Savannah Horvath earn Big West Conference Player of the Year honors. Horvath was chosen third team All-Region and honorable mention All-American by Fastpitch News. Horvath was taken 17th overall by Moh-Beel! USA in the inaugural American Softball Coaches Association draft. Â
In 2015, the Matadors started the Big West season 12-0 en route to a 16-5 finish and the Matadors’ first outright Big West Championship. The Matadors also recorded over 40 victories for the first time since 1996 and finished the year 41-17 overall. CSUN recorded notable Big West series wins over Cal Poly, Long Beach State and UC Riverside while defeating Arizona State, Stanford and Wisconsin in the preseason. For her work, Flowers was named the 2015 Big West Conference Coach of the Year.
CSUN has seen a steady trajectory in wins since a difficult 2012 season. In 2013, the Matadors posted the sixth-best turnaround in Division I and then followed that up with a 30-win season in 2014. Individually, the Matadors have excelled under Flowers’ leadership.
In 2017, Taylor Glover earned NFCA All-West Region First Team honors after claiming the Big West Player of the Year award. Glover became the first Matador in over 20 years to earn an All-West Region First Team award three times and an all-west region honor four times in her career. Katie Hooper also took home the 2017 Big West Defensive Player of the Year award for the Matadors.
Glover received NFCA All-American Third Team honors in 2016, becoming the first Matador in 13 seasons to earn the award. On the NFCA All-West Region Team, the Matadors were represented by Glover and Daphne Pofek as the duo earned First Team and Third Team nods respectively. Also, Karlie Habitz was named the 2016 Big West Defensive Player of the Year following the regular season.
Hooper was the 2015 Big West Player of the Year and earned NFCA Third Team All-Region honors. Horvath received 2015 Big West Co-Freshman of the Year Award, NFCA second team All-West Region and was the first Matador in program history to be named ASA/USA Softball National Player of the Week.
Furthermore, Zoe Conley became the first CSUN pitcher to earn first team NFCA All-West Region honors since the 1994 season. She was also named Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year and First Team All-Big West, becoming the first Matador in school history to be named her conference’s freshman pitcher of the year. Glover became the first Matador since 2003-04 to earn All-Region honors in two-consecutive seasons. She also earned First Team All-Big West honors for the second-straight year.
Those awards came on top of 13 All-Big West awards from 2011-2014. In 2013, Brianna Elder became CSUN’s first 20-game winner since 2001 and earned NFCA All-West Region Third Team and All-Big West First Team honors.
CSUN won 30-plus games from 2014-2017, a feat that had not been accomplished by a group of Matadors since 1996-99.
Away from CSUN, Flowers was in charge of the USA Junior National Team from 2013-2016. Most recently, Flowers and Team USA won the 2015 Junior Women’s World Championship in Oklahoma City. It marked the fifth time that Team USA has won the JWWC, tying Japan for the most first-place finishes. The team really excelled at the plate, batting .425 as a squad and scoring 119 runs in 10 games. In 2017, Flowers served as an assistant coach for the USA Softball Women’s National Team, Flowers helped guide the team to a second-place finish along with a 7-1 record in the tournament. In 2019 Flowers was selected as an assistant coach for the USA Softball National Team for the second time. In 2020, Flowers was selected as an assistant coach for the USA Olympic Team as the sport returned to the Summer Olympics after a 12-year absence. She will continue in that role as the games were rescheduled for 2021.
Flowers joined CSUN after serving four seasons as an assistant softball coach at Big West rival Long Beach State. As a member of the Long Beach coaching staff, Flowers helped the team to two NCAA Tournament appearances and coached 29 Big West All-Conference selections and six Academic All-Americans. After finishing her playing days at UCLA, Flowers served as an assistant coach at UC Riverside for the 2006 season.
Flowers was a four-year letter winner (2000-03) at UCLA. During her tenure with the Bruins, Flowers helped UCLA to four appearances at the College World Series including being a member of the 2003 NCAA championship team. Flowers earned All-American honors twice (2001, 2003) and was a three-time member of the All-College World Series team (2000, 2001, 2003). Flowers batted .373 with 61 home runs, 59 doubles, seven triples and 228 RBIs and ranks second on UCLA’s all-time list in home runs, games played (252, all of which were starts), RBIs and total bases (252). She was named to the Pac-12 Conference’s All-Century Softball Team and was inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in November of 2019.
Flowers’ outstanding talents on the softball field at UCLA led to a berth on the United States National Softball team from 2001-2008. In 2004, Flowers helped the United States to a perfect record and the gold medal in Athens, Greece, and then won a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She has also won gold medals at the 2002 and 2006 World Championships, the 2003 and 2007 Pan Am Games and the 2001 U.S. Cup.
Flowers’ coaching career on the collegiate level began in 2004 when she served as an undergraduate softball coach at her alma mater, UCLA. During the 2005 campaign, Flowers helped coach two Bruin All-Americans and five Pac-10 Conference players.
Flowers graduated from UCLA in 2005 with a degree in History. She is married to former CSUN women’s basketball head coach Jason Flowers, who led CSUN to three NCAA Tournaments during his tenure. The couple has three children: daughters Jasmine and Tristyn and son Jayce.
