Caitlyn Merzbacher enters her second season with the women's tennis program ahead of the 2022-23 campaign, and first as an Assistant Coach after spending last season under the Volunteer Assistant title.
A collegiate product out of Minnesota, Merzbacher enjoyed a lengthy and very successful career with the Golden Gophers from 2015-2019. During her senior season, she was named a team co-captain and earned the 2018-19 B1G Sportsmanship Award following the campaign.
Merzbacher saw extended action in both singles and doubles play at Minnesota, achieving most of the success between the No. 4, 5, and 6 positions in singles action and the No. 1 slot in doubles. During the 2019 spring season, her highlights included going undefeated over a stretch of three weeks, four-straight singles victories including two coming in B1G matches against Maryland and Indiana, and cracking Minnesota's all-time list for single wins in a season (28) and doubles wins in a career (67).
Merzbacher advanced to the 2018 ITA Central Regional Tournament quarterfinals in doubles play alongside partner Tiffany Huber. The duo finished with a 3-1 record which included a victory over the regional 8-seed team from Big 12 member Kansas. The run in the ITA Central Regional Championships was the second of her career after advancing to the Round of 16 with partner Jessika Mozia in her freshman fall season of 2015.
As a junior in 2017, Merzbacher finished the season 7-2 in singles matches and 11-12 overall in doubles while playing 20 of the 23 matches in the No. 1 pairing. The 7-2 mark in singles play came from the No. 5 (3-1) and No. 6 (4-1) slots. On two separate occasions, Merzbacher earned straight 6-0, 6-0 victories in singles action which saw the efforts come against student-athletes from South Dakota and South Dakota State. She also earned a 6-0, 6-1 victory in the No. 6 hole against Indiana's competition.
Merzbacher left the Minnesota program as a three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree in addition to earning the league's sportsmanship award which was previously mentioned.
Merzbacher, a native of both Ohio and Edina, Minnesota, concluded a highly successful scholastic career that saw her be a part of four high school state championships with two coming in Ohio and two in Minnesota at Edina High School. She was the Minnesota singles state champion in both 2013 and 2014 which earned her All-American status following the 2014 season. She then competed on an European circuit for a month over the 2014 summer as part of the USTA.
Merzbacher graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2019 with a degree in Marketing. Her father Chuck, the current head coach of the men's program at Chattanooga, is the former Gophers head women's tennis coach and played at Minnesota from 1983-87, leaving the program as the all-time leader in career singles victories. In addition, her brother Chad played golf at the University of Tennessee.
