John Mercer

Biography

The 2022-2023 season will be head coach John Mercer's 35th year coaching at the NCAA Division I level and his 20th at the helm of the Thundering Herd tennis team. Marshall's all-time leader in wins with 277, Mercer took over in 2003 and has led the Herd to double-digit wins in 18 of his 19 seasons. Mercer helped turn around the career of Derya Turhan, who won 55 singles matches in her final two years with the Herd and was named Conference USA Player of the Year in 2016. Turhan won 54 matches in her first two seasons and improved that mark to 93 wins over her final two seasons with the help of Mercer. Turhan was the second Conference USA Player of the Year that Mercer has coached, joining former Herd assistant Kellie Schmitt, who won the award three times. In the 2016-17 season, Mercer helped the team improve by three wins from the previous season, finishing at 14-10 overall. The Herd had five players named All-Conference for singles for the second time in the last three seasons. Derya Turhan earned First Team honors for the third straight season. All three seniors (Turhan, Rachael Morales and Anna Pomyatinskaya) earned All-Conference singles honors in all four years. The Herd reached its highest mark in the rankings since 2011 when it was ranked No. 37 by ITA. In the 2015-16 season, the Herd endured its worst mark since Mercer took over, finishing at 11-11 overall and reaching the quarterfinals of the Conference USA tournament before falling to Old Dominion. Derya Turhan was