Two UH Hilo tennis players had weekends to remember during their opening matches in a Vulcan uniform. Earning the UH HIlo Pepsi Athletes of the Week award for the middle of February are Carolina Alfonsin and Alessio Demichelis.

Carolina Alfonsin had a pretty smashing debut for UH Hilo last weekend to say the least. The Sonoma State transfer found herself the center of attention on a hot Sunday afternoon, playing singles in the clinching match against No. 5 nationally ranked Hawai`i Pacific. With the team score tied at 3-3, Alfonsin traded blows with HPU's Valentina Mokrova, coming from behind to win the third set and the match for UHH, 6-4. During the weekend, where the Vulcans went 3-1, the Monterrey, Mexico native was 2-1 in singles and 2-1 in doubles.

Freshman Alessio Demichelis had a debut weekend to remember as well, winning two matches at the No. 2 singles slot against No. 5 nationally ranked Hawai`i Pacific at the Fairmont Orchid Resort. In the morning match on Sunday against the Sharks, the Italy native defeated Matej Panik 6-4, 6-3, and also won at No. 1 doubles with teammate Martin Soukal (who was named the PacWest Player of the Week). The Vulcans upset the Sharks in the match, 5-2. In the afternoon contest that HPU won (4-2), Dimichelis again won his singles match, this time rolling Ryohei Arai, 6-1, 6-0. Demichelis is now 2-0 on the year in singles and 1-1 in doubles.

After one of the better combined (men and women) weekends in UH Hilo tennis history, the Vulcans now have to wait at least a couple of weeks before taking a scheduled trip to California to play half a dozen teams each (pandemic permitting).