Hawai'i Hilo Vulcans Athletics

Vulcan tennis player Martin Soukal is playing his best tennis of the year at just the right time. Two weeks after winning the Pepsi award for helping to lead his team to the PacWest title, the junior from the Czech Republic did it again this past weekend as the Vulcans won the NCAA West Region Championship. Soukal, ranked No. 22 nationally, defeated two players on the stadium court that he lost to earlier this year. He topped Concordia's Yassine Smiej 6-3, 6-3 on Friday, while also teaming with Santiago Di Loreto to win in doubles over Smiej and Mike Jansen, 7-6 (7-5). In the championship match, Soukal defeated Hawaii Pacific's Benjamin Loccisano, 6-4, 6-2 and won in doubles again with Di Loreto over Loccisano and Marcel Horning, 6-4. On the season, he is 8-3 in singles with five consecutive wins and is 7-4 in doubles.