First-year Stanford head coach Jessica Allister has filled out her inaugural staff, bringing longtime assistant Jessica Merchant over from Minnesota and adding Cardinal alum Tori Nyberg.
Merchant had been Allister’s top assistant at Minnesota for seven years and was a part of the Golden Gopher coaching staff that led the squad to a Big Ten championship and #1 national ranking during the 2017 season.
A Michigan product and two-time all-American as a player, Merchant spent time as an assistant coach at UMass and her alma mater before moving to Minnesota.
Nyberg, a former teammate of Allister’s at Stanford, moves to Stanford after serving as head coach at Dominican for one year. In her single season at Dominican, Nyberg led her squad to a 23-27 record and ended the season on a four-game win streak.
A two-time all-Pac 12 honoree as a player, Nyberg ranks in the top ten in five program all-time statistical categories. Her coaching resume includes stops at Cal State Monterey Bay; Northwestern; and Illinois-Chicago.
The Cardinal posted a win-loss record of 19-32 in 2017, finishing the year in last place in the Pac-12 standings. Allister was hired to lead the Cardinal in mid-July.
