Bunyawi Thamchaiwat is Orange Hot on the Courts Right Now

The Cowgirls sophomore at number two singles is playing lights out.

STILLWATER -- If you think her name is tough, you should work on pronouncing where Bunyawi Thamchaiwat is from. It's easy to say that she hails from Thailand, but how about that home town and high school, Nakhon Ratchisima, Thailand and Sura Nari Witthaya School. The nearly always smiling Thamchaiwat is making everybody proud these days, family back home and teammates and her head coach at Oklahoma State as Chris Young believes her start to the spring 2020 season qualifies her as the most improved player on the team. 

"I feel like compared to last year there is a lot of improvement for me," Thamchaiwat said. "Because I know what to think when I play and I know how to control it. I've learned a lot from last season because at the start of last season I lost so many matches. My coach taught me how to think through that and just focus on what I've worked on and achieving my goals. I pride myself and I improve a lot. I take a lot of pride."

Se is currently playing number two doubles and number two singles. Thamchaiwat has boosted her singles ranking all the way to 29th in the nation. She really put on a show in Las Vegas at the Freeman Memorial Invitational, an individual tournament that the team participated in. Thamchaiwat ran through some tough competition to make the singles final and lost the 7th-ranked Michael Jones of Stanford in three sets, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. 

Last week she teamed with new arrival Lenka Stara to win doubles matches against both San Diego and Ohio State. 

In singles, Thamchaiwat took care of Gemma Garcia of San Diego 6-0, 6-3. Then on Sunday in the tough team loss to Ohio State 4-3, Thamchaiwat battled for one of the two singles wins for the Cowgirls knocking off highly-regarded Buckeyes freshman from Canada, Isabelle Boulais 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. 

Coach Young said Bunyawi is valuable too in that she is maybe the Cowgirl that is always in the best mood.

"Absolutely, I want to entertain them like if they have joy and they have energy, we're like together," explained Thamchaiwat. "So if we enjoy then everything is going to be good."

It was funny, but we asked Bunyawi what she enjoys about Stillwater. She explained it is much different from home and then said she enjoys practicing and conditioning with strength coach Nick Hoheisel. Okay, so she may not be the most likely to head up the recruiting efforts. She does love her classes and is majoring in Sports and Coaching Science. Practicing, playing, and working out make her happy. 

Winning makes her happy and she has been doing a lot of that lately and will look to do it some more this next weekend in matches with Arkansas on Jan. 31. and Tulsa on Feb. 1.