Vulcan tennis player Martin Soukal and softball student-athlete Angel Prewitt are this week's winners of the UH Hilo Pepsi Athletes of the Week.

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. The Vulcans now advance to the NCAA Championships, May 18-20 in Surprise, Arizona.

Vulcan rightfielder Prewitt was one of a number of UH Hilo players that swung the bat well this past weekend in a three-game sweep of Hawaii Pacific. But Prewitt had the best all-around numbers with seven total RBI in the three games at Walter Victor Complex, while going 5-for-7 (.714 average). She also scored three times and hit a double. In the regular season finale, her RBI-single ended the mercy-rule contest in the sixth inning. In that game, the Concordia (Ore.) transfer was 2-for-2 with a career-high four RBI. The left-handed hitting Prewitt is now hitting .545 in her last nine games, and currently leads the team with a .400 batting average. The South Kitsap, Wash. native also has 11 RBI, is tied for the team lead with 10 walks and leads the Vulcans in on-base percentage at .522. Prewitt and the Vulcans head to San Rafael, Calif. this week for the PacWest Pod AQ Series on Wednesday and Thursday.