Zamarripa twins surprisingly choose Texas

   Allura and Maribella Zamarripa surprised even themselves by verbally committing to enroll at the University of Texas in 2021.
    The identical twins from Saint Helena in the Napa area are "total California girls," Allura said in the May/June issue of Inside Tennis. "We wanted to stay in California. SoCal, NorCal ... it didn't matter. We just wanted to be in California close to our family. Our initial schools were Stanford, UCLA, Pepperdine, USC. Texas wasn't even on the radar."
   The Zamarripas changed their minds after visiting the University of Texas in Austin.
   "We decided to do a last-minute visit in February," Maribella said, "and we were pleasantly surprised. We chose Texas because we wanted to go pro after college, and Texas had the best opportunities. They play the most pro tournaments, and the resources there are unbelievable."
   In the class of 2020, Aryan Chaudhary of Santa Clara and India Houghton of Belvedere Tiburon will head to nearby Stanford, Katherine Duong of Cupertino will play at Illinois, and Dean Babb of Roseville will attend Columbia.
   Santa Clara, Belvedere Tiburon and Cupertino are in the San Francisco Bay Area. Roseville is a suburb of Sacramento.
   Assuming the Zamarripas follow through on their commitment, they will follow Jenson Brooksby as top Northern California juniors to choose a Texas school. Brooksby, the 2018 USTA boys 18 national champion from Carmichael in the Sacramento region, originally committed to Texas Christian in Fort Worth for 2020 before following renowned coach Brian Boland to Baylor in Waco. Boland won four NCAA team titles in five years (2013-17) at Virginia.
   The Zamarripas almost stunned eventual champions Madison Brengle and Sachia Vickery in the first round of the $60,000 Berkeley Tennis Club Women's Challenge last July, falling 6-7 (5), 6-2 [10-5]. Brengle also won the singles title.
   In 2018, the Zamarripas swept the girls 16 doubles titles in the Easter Bowl at Indian Wells, Calif., and the USTA International Spring Championships in Carson, Calif., in consecutive weeks.