Marshall University Athletics
BOGACZYK: One Thing Never Changes in Herd Tennis
1/13/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
By JACK BOGACZYK
HERDZONE.COM COLUMNIST
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - If it seems like Marshall's tennis roster changes every semester, well, it's because that's been the case in recent seasons.
And if it seems like the one thing that isn't altered are the challenges Coach John Mercer puts before his team, that's true, too.
As the Herd opens the dual-match spring portion of the 2014-15 season Saturday, the eight-player roster has a newcomer - and seven players are sophomore or freshmen - and the schedule appears unforgiving.
Mercer has lined up a schedule that includes 11 matches against teams ranked in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association top 75 poll - including top-ranked UCLA on Jan. 24 at Los Angeles in the ITA/USTA National Team Indoors.
Marshall also faces several quality teams not in the early January top 75. One of those is College of Charleston, which was the Colonial Athletic Association runner-up last season. The Cougars visit the Herd on Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Huntington Tennis Center in Barboursville.
"Probably, it's pretty close if it isn't the toughest," Mercer said of the degree of difficulty of the Marshall schedule. "And even with that many, I'm sure we'll have a couple more, like VCU, maybe Penn State. Old Dominion is good.
"So we'll probably end up with more than that. It's a very tough schedule and we have to navigate our way through it and hopefully it will make us much better players."
The 60-team event that starts at UCLA for the Herd is a national tournament with more quality in the field than the NCAA Tournament perennially has. The ITA National Indoor doles out invitations based on rankings. Mercer said Marshall finished last season at No. 79, and when some teams declined National Indoor berths, MU moved up.
With a choice to play at No. 7 Cal or top-ranked UCLA, Mercer chose the Bruins. Win or lose, and Marshall plays another ranked team the following day in No. 72 Cal-Irvine or No. 64 Kansas State.
Conference USA favorite - and tournament host -- Rice is No. 21, and Marshall also faces ranked teams in Kentucky (37), Utah (44), DePaul (46), Virginia Tech (57), Winthrop (62), Louisville (63) and Minnesota (71).
After freshmen Maddie Silver and Marija Bogicevic began their college careers last September, Mercer and assistant coach Kellie Schmitt have a newcomer this week in Cristina Kaiser of Philadelphia. Kaiser, who won the Pennsylvania Class AAA title as a Plymouth Whitemarsh High junior in the fall of 2012, originally signed with Delaware, then gained her release and has joined the Herd.
Marshall's lone senior is Kai Broomfield of Toronto. Sophomores Derya Turhan and Anna Pomyatinskaya will play Nos. 1 and 2 singles, and classmates Rachael Morales and Anne Gulsrud also are in the mix.
Turhan, of Bad Salzuflen, Germany, is ranked No. 116 nationally in singles by the ITA - the first Herd player ranked since Michaela Kissell was No. 27 to open the 2011 spring season. Turhan is no. 10 in the Atlantic Region, while Silver - the no. 49 national prospect when she arrived at MU - is No. 19 in the region.
The Turhan-Pomyatinskaya duo plays No. 1 doubles.
"Last year, we had a little more senior leadership and we had more freshmen, but it's going to be similar to last year," Mercer said. "We're breaking in three new players and while we're still really young, freshmen will make a big impact on our lineup like last year.
"We've assembled some really talented players, and we made a big jump this past fall. Derya is ranked and Anna is playing higher. It's a process, building a program, but we've gotten to the point where we're really excited what we have here, their attitude to do well is great.
"We want to challenge for a conference championship."
Kaiser arrives after being ranked No. 69 in the 2014 recruiting class. In the early signing period for 2015-16, the Herd signed Jackie Carr of Rogers, Ark. She was ranked no. 36 nationally by tennisrecruiting.net before illness in her family curbed her play last season, Mercer said. She ranked No. 74 in the Class of 2015.
Another change for the Herd this season is the format for NCAA tennis. Doubles matches will be played to six games to win, rather than eight. Singles matches will still be best 2-of-3 sets, but will be played with no-ad scoring.
"They wanted to speed up the game," Mercer said.
Some schools also are trying to schedule matches when they'll be perhaps available to more spectators. The Herd has one of those, against nationally ranked Utah at the Huntington Tennis Center on March 2 - a 7 p.m. start.
"A Monday night, 7 o'clock, against a Pac-12 team," Mercer said. "I hope we can get more fans to come out."
A match at Morehead State originally scheduled for Saturday has been put on "to be announced" status by the Eagles, Mercer said, after MSU had a chance to play in a multi-team event at Louisville. The opener with Charleston was then pushed back one hour to 11 a.m.
Mercer said the Herd starts the season with a chance to be in the top four teams in Conference USA.
"Rice (the 2013 and '14 C-USA champion) is up there (No. 21) again, and North Texas is next (No. 66)," Mercer said. "Florida International will be very good. Old Dominion should be in the top four or five."
The Herd plays at Rice, FIU and Old Dominion during the regular season.
"I think what we're seeing in the `new' Conference USA is programs like FIU and Old Dominion see an opportunity to do a good job immediately and they're investing in their women's tennis programs," Mercer said. "We're good. Rice is obviously really good, and we'd like to get to play them twice, playing them in regular season and hopefully play them in the final of the conference tournament.
"I just hope it doesn't turn out that we're 11-11, because we could be that and still be really good."
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With the spring semester opening this week, the Herd also gets back into competition in other Olympic sports, too.
The track and field team has its second competition of the indoor season Saturday at the Kentucky Invitational in Lexington. Marshall will play host to the Thundering Herd Invitational on Jan. 30-31 on the Jeff Small Track in the indoor facility.
Coach Bill Tramel's swimming and diving team returns to the poll with meets Friday and Saturday at Bowling Green, Ohio. The Herd will face Michigan and BG on Friday at 6 p.m., then swim against Toledo and the host Falcons on Saturday at 11 a.m.
The Herd has one more home date at Fitch Natatorium, against C-USA foe Western Kentucky on Jan. 31 at 1 p.m.
