Ai Prachumsri heads into his eighth year at the helm of the UC Merced men’s volleyball program for the 2025 season and has the Bobcats succeeding on and off the court.
Prachumsri, the winningest coach in program history, has a head coaching record of 88-84 and a conference record of 50-32. He was named the 2021 California Pacific Conference Coach of the Year.
This past season, Prachumsri led the Bobcats to the first California Pacific Conference regular season championship in program history.
One of the most familiar faces around the athletics department, Prachumsri started his UC Merced career as the starting libero in the program’s first ever season in 2014. He followed his playing career with two years as an assistant coach and a year as the interim head coach before officially taking the reigns prior to the 2018 campaign.
He has had his team ranked 13th (2021 season) in the NAIA Men’s Volleyball Coaches’ Poll, which is the highest ranking any team has ever achieved in UC Merced Athletics history. In addition, Prachumsri has taken down five Top 10 opponents, including a sweep over #4 Saint Ambrose University and #10 Lourdes University. The Bobcats have also tested their luck against NCAA opponents and have beaten UC Santa Cruz, Dominican University, Cal Lutheran and Medaille College. Prachumsri has also scheduled NCAA Division One foes CSUN and UC San Diego among others.
Due to the growing sport, in his seven seasons as a head coach, Prachumsri has been a part of three different conferences including Independents (2018), Golden State Athletic Conference (2019 & 2020) and California Pacific Conference (2020-Pres.). His players have earned recognition in all three conferences and in total Prachumsri has coached 38 Players of the Week, 20 all-conference selections, a 3X Setter of the Year, an attacker of the year, an offensive player of the year, a defensive player of the year, two NAIA National Players of the Week and three AVCA All-Americans.
Academically, Prachumsri’s squad has been extremely sharp and have earned a plethora of national and departmental honors including Brennan Taylor and Ryan Kilgore earning CSC Academic All-America distinctions. Among many other remarkable achievements, Prachumsri has seen his squad rack up 55 individual academic awards at the conference and national level and his program is responsible for five of the seven UC Merced Male Intercollegiate Scholar Athletes of the Year. He has also mentored his team to four NAIA Scholar-Team awards.
Prachumsri led the Bobcats to their first ever conference regular season title with a 10-2 record in Cal Pac play in 2024. Six Bobcats earned postseason recognition with Kilgore and Jared Guglielmana earning All-Cal Pac First Team recognition. UC Merced set program records with 1,003 digs and 219 blocks and neared a record with 1,161 kills and 124 service aces. Also of note, the Bobcats 219 blocks were the most ever by a NAIA program in California and it ranked 16th in the nation in 2024. The Bobcats 2.07 blocks per set in conference play was a league best. UC Merced went 13-15 overall, with the 10-2 conference mark. UC Merced won the Cal Pac regular season title on the final day of the conference slate, sweeping Park University Gilbert. The day prior, UC Merced knocked off No. 14 Benedictine Mesa on the road to become the first Cal Pac team to ever sweep the season series with the Redhawks. On February 23, the Bobcats beat the then seventh-ranked Redhawks at home for the first time in program history and snapped the opponents 34-match Cal Pac winning streak. UC Merced entered the Cal Pac Championship Tournament as the #1 seed and swept University of Saint Katherine before finishing runner-up.
In 2023, UC Merced went 6-6 in Cal Pac play and earned the #4 seed in the California Pacific Conference Championships. Overall, the squad finished 9-14. Prachumsri tested his team with an extremely challenging nonconference schedule, settling on matchups with four top-15 opponents and a trip to the University of Jamestown Invitational. The Bobcats found their stride heading into conference play, winning their final two nonconference matches and their first three Cal Pac contests as part of a five-match winning streak. Later in the season, the Bobcats won a must-win match at University of Saint Katherine that helped decide their postseason fate. The Bobcats ultimately lost to top-seeded BenU Mesa in the Cal Pac semifinals. Prior to the tournament, Chris Morikawa earned All-Cal Pac First Team honors, while juniors Jared Guglielmana and Ryan Kilgore were tabbed honorable mentions.
Prachumsri coached the Bobcats to a run to the California Pacific Conference Championship match in 2022. The Bobcats finished the year with a 10-10 overall record and a 7-4 mark in conference action. Along with making the Cal Pac Championship match, Prachumsri’s 2022 squad stacked up as one of the best in the conference statistically. They ranked top two in kills per set, assists per set, digs per set, and hitting percentage. The Bobcats 10.12 digs per set was also good for 15th in the nation. Three players earned postseason honors, including Cal Pac Setter of the Year Ryan Steele and Cal Pac Attacker of the Year Chris Morikawa. Both Steele and Morikawa finished with the second highest assists and kills output in program history, respectively. Steele went on to earn AVCA NAIA Honorable Mention All-American honors and was also named UC Merced’s Male Intercollegiate Athlete of the Year. Key wins over the course of the year include UC Santa Cruz, Hope International University, Simpson University and a the Bobcats first ever postseason sweep over Westcliff University. Academically, the Bobcats saw four get selected to the Cal Pac All-Academic Team.
The 2021 Cal Pac Coach of the Year Ai Prachumsri led the Bobcats to their best season in program history in the most recent season, finishing 12-1 overall and winning a school-record 12 straight matches. The Bobcats success earned them a spot in the national rankings and in the California Pacific Conference Jamboree finale. The Bobcats first ever national ranking was No. 15 on March 24 and the voters moved the Bobcats up a spot to No. 14 in the Postseason Coaches Poll. The No. 14 national ranking is the highest of any UC Merced Athletics team in department history. Seven of the Bobcats 12 wins were sweeps and Prachumsri’s squad only had to go to a decisive fifth set twice. Prachumsri had no shortage of talent on this year’s team, from seniors to freshman, and everyone in between. Prachumsri coached opposite Chris Morikawa to one of the most decorated seasons in program history as the sophomore earned NAIA Honorable Mention All-American honors, national player of the week honors and was named the Cal Pac Player of the Week on three different dates. Furthermore, Prachumsri’s setter Ryan Steele was named the Cal Pac Setter of the Year, his libero Zach Brill was selected as the Cal Pac Defensive Player of the Year and freshman Jared Guglielmana earned the conference’s Newcomer of the Year award. The awards were a constant throughout the season and the highest amount of honors in program history were achieved, including 12 Cal Pac Player of the Week awards. Statistically, the 2021 roster posted a program-record .314 hitting percentage and had the second best kills per set mark at 12.6 kills per set.
The shortened 2020 season due to the pandemic left the Bobcats with a 9-11 record overall, 4-5 in conference play. UC Merced dominated in their victories and totaled a program-record six sweeps. The Bobcats first four wins on Hostetler Court came via the sweep, keeping fans excited all season long and finishing with a winning record at home for the third time in the last four years. Other highlights include downing Hope International University, hitting a program-best .507 against conference foe The Master’s University and recording a program-best 13 service aces against first-time opponent Simpson University. Over the course of the season, the Bobcats 11.77 kills per set, .255 hitting percentage, 10.21 digs per set and 1.24 service aces per set marked the second highest in program history. Ryan Steele broke the program’s all-time assists record and won two Player of the Week awards before being named Setter of the Year in April. Chris Morikawa, Trevor Jurlina and Emmanuel Egun were also recognized after the season by the California Pacific Conference.
In 2019, Prachumsri guided the program into a new era in the Golden State Athletic Conference. The Bobcats finished conference play 4-6, good enough for a spot in the inaugural GSAC Men’s Volleyball Championships. Overall, UC Merced went 13-13, including a win over 6th ranked Saint Ambrose and wins against traditional NCAA Division III powerhouses UC Santa Santa Cruz and Dominican University. Prachumsri’s team was one of the youngest in the NAIA. Three freshmen and one sophomore earned GSAC Player of the Week honors. Freshman middle blocker Christopher Calder earned two POTW awards. Prachumsri’s underclassman accounted for 72% of the team’s kills, 87% of the digs and 54% of the blocks. In comparison to the rest of the NAIA, the Bobcats stacked up strong statistically and ranked Top 20 in assists, kills, hitting percentage, blocks and digs.
In the 2018 campaign, Prachumsri guided the Bobcats to their first winning record in program history. The team finished 14-10 and despite missing the postseason, the Bobcats set their single-season win record and knocked off three Top-10 opponents. Prachumsri's team caught fire down the stretch, winning six straight games, including a sweep over No.4 Saint Ambrose University. His outside hitter, Cole Smith, also won his second National Attacker of the Week award during the week of the St. Ambrose game and would go on to become an AVCA Honorable Mention All-American.
While in an interim role the previous season, Prachumsri led the team to the best season prior to 2017-18, finishing the year with a 7-11 record. The season included consecutive victories over Hope International University for the first time in program history, and a stretch that saw the team win seven of ten matches in March as well as earning a spot in the conference tournament.
Prachumsri has also been the head women’s volleyball coach since 2016 and recently won the California Pacific Conference Championship in 2020. Overall, he has compiled 94 wins and has a 78-51 record in Cal Pac play. He has guided the Bobcats to a postseason run seven times and advanced to the conference championship game in 2017, 2019 & 2020. His full women’s volleyball bio can be seen here.
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 2014, as the program was elevated to the intercollegiate level, he competed as the starting libero for the inaugural squad.
In the classroom, Prachumsri was among the top students on campus and in the engineering department as he was honored on the Chancellor’s 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, Calif., 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 master’s degree in Kinesiology with an emphasis in strength and conditioning and orthopedic rehabilitation from AT Still University.
