A talented Oklahoma State student’s decision to move to California for two final years of college tennis has brightened prospects for Aztec women’s tennis.
Encouraged by praise of SDSU and its tennis program by a former OSU teammate, Tamara Arnold, Bunyawi Thamchaiwat of Thailand is joining the Aztecs.
Her transfer was arranged by head coach Peter Mattera and his associate head coach, Nico Vinel.
She is OSU’s 16th All American woman’s tennis competitor.
In the year-end NCAA tournament, she defeated Wake Forest’s Anna Campana in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2, to earn her second victory.
In the round of 16, Thamchaiwat, ranked 26th in the nation, lost to North Carolina State’s Anna Rogers, ranked 6th, in three sets, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1.
This season, Thamchaiwat was the highest-ranking singles player in the Big 12 Conference and Big 12 Player of the Year. She won 12 of her 14 matches.
At Oklahoma State, Thamchaiwat, 23, majored in sports and coaching science.
She is from Nakhon Ratchasima, a city of 125,000 people living some 160 miles northeast of Bangkok.