After nearly three months and several turned-down offers, the Gophers softball program named Jessica Allister its new head coach Tuesday afternoon. Allister most recently served as an assistant coach at Oregon, working particularly with hitting, outfielders and catchers and serving as the recruiting and travel coordinator. The Ducks reached their first-ever Super Regional last year. Before that she spent three seasons assistant coaching at Stanford, where she was also an All-American catcher from 2001 to 2004, acting as first base coach and worked with catchers. She helped Cardinal catcher Rosey Neill to Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2008 and 2009 as the Stanford coaching staff won the 2009 NFCA West Regional Coaching Staff of the Year. Stanford made the NCAA tournament all three of AllisterâÄôs years coaching there, including Super Regional appearances in 2008 and 2009. She spent her first two seasons coaching as an assistant with Georgia in 2005 and 2006, including the 2005 SEC Championship. Allister succeeds co-head coaches Lisa Bernstein and Julie Standering, whose contracts werenâÄôt renewed after last season after the Gophers finished in last place at 2-17, their fourth bottom-3 finish in six years. Bernstein had coached the team for 19 seasons, including 12 with Standering as head coach, and Allister is just the sixth head coach in program history. The Star Tribune reported earlier this week that four candidates had turned down the job, which includes a salary just short of $90,000 and a car: St. ThomasâÄô John Tschida, North Dakota StateâÄôs Darren Mueller, Cal PolyâÄôs Jenny Condon and the University of CaliforniaâÄôs Tammy Lohmann. The Nacogdoches, Texas-native made a pair of appearances in the WomenâÄôs College World Series as a catcher for Stanford, and holds the programâÄôs career records for games played (266) and fielding percentage (.994). She was named the Stanford Conference Female Athlete of the Year in 2004.