University of California Merced Women's Volleyball

A staple in the UC Merced Athletics Department for the last decade, Prachumsri now has the most Cal Pac wins in program history with 40 and the best Cal Pac winning percentage at a .667 as his record stands at 40-20. Prachumsris overall record stands at 49-54 and he is three wins away from also owning the most overall wins in program history. In two of the last four years, Prachumsri and the Bobcats have finished higher in the final Cal Pac standings than projected in the Preseason Conference Group Poll. No other team in the conference has outperformed projections multiple years since the start of 2016 besides the Bobcats. Prachumsri has coached some of the best players in program history, including the duo of Dominique Andrews and Jaysonna Johnson who were the first two NAIA honorable mention All-Americans in program history. Prachumsri had the pleasure of coaching the two all four years (2016-19) and they combined for seven All-Cal Pac honors and ten Cal Pac Player of the Week awards. In total, Prachumsri has mentored eight All-Cal Pac selections, nine Cal Pac honorable mentions and his players have been named Cal Pac Player of the Week 26 times (the highest number out of all Cal Pac teams since 2016). Prachsumsri has also taken academics to heart with his team and womens volleyball has held the department's top cumulative GPA three consecutive years. Additionally, he has mentored 12 Chancellors List honorees, six Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes and his student athletes Rachael Schafer and Madison Mitchell were named the UC Merced Female Intercollegiate Scholar Athlete of the Year in 2018 and 2020, respectively. The 2019 campaign saw the Bobcats win a program record 16 games overall and go 12-4 in conference play, earning a sixth straight berth to the California Pacific Conference Championships and entering as the No. 2 seed. The season got off to a great start as the Bobcats started off with a season opening win for the first time since 2015 and just a day later the Bobcats earned their first ever Top 25 win as they defeated #15 The Masters University in five sets. The Bobcats had two different five-match winning streaks late in the season and finished with ten wins in their final 12 matches. Prachumsris team also won a program-record six straight road matches from October 12-November 9. Prior to that streak, the Bobcats had never won six true road matches in any previous season. Stellar play at the net was the name of the game for the Bobcats in 2019 as they recorded a program record 1,208 kills and 99 solo blocks. The Bobcats also led the Cal Pac with 2.2 blocks/set for the fourth year in a row. At the annual postseason banquet, Andrews and Johnson earned All-Cal Pac First Team honors while Emily Romo and Madison Mitchell were named honorable mention. The following day, the quartet led the Bobcats to a five-set win over La Sierra in the Cal Pac semifinals and put the Bobcats in the championship game for the second time in the last three years. In 2018-19,  the Bobcats were the conferences number one blocking team for the third year in a row, checking in at 1.9 blocks per set. The strong blocking efforts parlayed with a fast-paced offensive attack carried the Bobcats down the stretch, winning seven of their final ten conference games to clinch a berth into the postseason. Overall, the Bobcats played to a 11-14 record, 9-7 in conference play. Under Prachumsri, Dominique Andrews became the programs first ever All-American and broke the Bobcats single-season kills record with 354. Andrews, along with Cassandra Diaz and Jaysonna Johnson, earned All-California Pacific Conference recognition. Additionally, Prachumsri saw the rise of freshman Destiny Andersen and Lexus Kato-Lagumbay. Both players jumped into the programs single-season Top 10 list, Andersen with 189 kills and Kato-Lagumbay with 219 digs.  In 2017-18. Prachumsri led the team to a 10-15 overall record and 9-5 California Pacific Conference record. After a tough non-conference slate, Prachumsri's team fought their way back into postseason contention and ended the regular season with eight wins in their final eleven games. UC Merced entered their fourth straight conference tournament and took Embry-Riddle (AZ) to a fifth set in the Cal Pac Championship game.  In addition to his coaching duties with the womens team, Prachumsri just completed his third official season as the head coach of the men's volleyball team and became the winningest coach in program history with 36 wins. His overall record stands at 36-34. Prachumsri served as the interim head coach during the 2016-17 season and guided the team to seven wins, which was the best season in program history prior to 2017-18 when the team went 14-10 and beat a trio of nationally ranked teams.  Prior to his time as the head womens volleyball coach, Prachumsri was the lead assistant for the program in 2015.  Additionally, Prachumsri was a member of the UC Merced men's volleyball coaching staff for two seasons (2014-15 & 2015-16). Prior to his time as a coach at UC Merced, Prachumsri was a student athlete on campus and graduated in 2014 with a degree in Bioengineering. As a student athlete at UC Merced, he competed as a member of the men's volleyball club team for three years and in 2013, as the program was elevated to the intercollegiate level, he competed as the starting libero for the inaugural squad. The 2013-14 Bobcat Award winner is currently third in program history with 1.92 digs per set.  In the classroom, Prachumsri was one of the top students on campus and in the engineering department as he was honored on the Chancellors List all five years.  During his time on campus he also took on additional responsibilities as the Intramurals Student Coordinator and as a Student Athlete Learning Assistant, helping tutor his fellow student athletes.  A native of Thailand, Prachumsri made Torrance, California his hometown at the age of 14.  Following in the youthful tradition of firsts for UC Merced, he is notably the first UC Merced alum to hold a collegiate head coaching position. Prachumsri completed a masters degree in Kinesiology with an emphasis in strength and conditioning and orthopedic rehabilitation from AT Still University.