EDITOR’S NOTE—The nieces of Great Bend Recreation Commission’s Paul Zamarripa, Jr. helped the Texas Longhorns win the 2022 NCAA Women’s Tennis National Championship. Allura and Bella Zamarripa are the daughters of David and Mitzi Zamarripa and the nieces of Nikki and Paul Zamarripa, Jr. The grand-daughters of Paul Zamarripa, Sr. feature several great aunts, uncles and cousins who reside in Great Bend.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The University of Texas Women's Tennis team (26-4) claimed a 4-1 victory against No. 2 Oklahoma (32-3) in the NCAA Championship Match Sunday at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex. The Longhorns won the doubles point and secured singles victories from Peyton Stearns, Sabina Zeynalova and Allura Zamarripa to clinch the dual-match win.
Texas earned its fourth NCAA team title in program history, including the second-straight under head coach Howard Joffe. The Longhorns won NCAA Championships in 1993, 1995 and 2021. Texas joins Stanford and Florida as the only schools to repeat as NCAA Division I Women's Tennis national champions since 1982.
The University of Texas captured the 60th national team championship (56 NCAA titles) in school history. It marked the second national title during the current 2021-22 academic calendar year, as Men's Indoor Track and Field won the crown in March.
Playing a full match outdoors for the first time while in Champaign for the last three rounds of the NCAA Team Championship, Texas took a 1-0 lead by winning the doubles point. The No. 67-ranked sophomore duo of Charlotte Chavatipon and Kylie Collins claimed a 6-1 victory on court 2 over Alexandra Pisareva and Layne Sleeth. Chavatipon and Collins opened the match with a service break on a deuce point and held serve in the following game to build a 2-0 cushion. After Pisareva and Sleeth held serve to pull to within 2-1, Chavatipon and Collins won four straight games to finish the match and conclude the season with an 18-3 record in doubles, including a 13-1 mark in dual-match action.
The freshman pair of Sabina Zeynalova and Bella Zamarripa clinched the doubles point with a 6-2 win on court 3 against Dana Guzman and Emma Staker. Zeynalova and Zamarripa jumped out to a 2-0 lead, before Guzman and Staker responded by winning back-to-back games to even the set at 2-2. Zeynalova and Zamarripa held serve and claimed a service break to take a 4-2 advantage. The UT duo held serve again and earned another break to close out the victory. Zeynalova and Zamarripa played together just seven times during the season, with three of those coming in Champaign where they went 2-0.
Oklahoma evened the overall dual-match score at 1-1, as Staker posted a 6-1, 6-1 victory on court 6 against freshman Vivian Ovrootsky (12-7).
No. 2 Peyton Stearns earned a 6-0, 6-2 win over No. 10 Sleeth to give the Longhorns a 2-1 lead. Stearns earned service breaks on deuce points three times in her opening set en route to a 6-0 shutout. After Sleeth began the second set with a service break, Stearns answered by breaking Sleeth at love, holding serve and breaking Sleeth again to build a 3-1 cushion. Sleeth responded with a service break in the following game, but Stearns won the next three games to finish the match and improve to 27-2 overall in singles this year, including a 24-2 mark in dual-match play on court 1.
No. 93 Zeynalova followed with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) victory on court 3 against No. 97 Ivana Corley. Zeynalova won the first two games of her opening set, but Corley answered by claiming three straight games to take a 3-2 advantage. Zeynalova responded with a service break and then won the next three games to close out the 6-3 first-set victory. Corley jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the second set, before Zeynalova earned a service break on a deuce point, held serve at deuce, broke Corley again and held serve to even the set at 5-5. Both players held serve in the next two games to force a tiebreaker. Tied at 3-3 in the breaker, Zeynalova won three-straight points to grab a 6-3 advantage. Corley won the following point to trim the margin to 6-4, but Zeynalova won the next point on her serve to close out the victory. Zeynalova concluded her freshman season with a 23-1 record in singles, including a perfect 6-0 mark in singles during the NCAA Tournament.
For the third straight day in Champaign, freshman Allura Zamarripa clinched the overall dual-match win for the Longhorns. Zamarripa, who was named the NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player, earned a 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) victory on court 5 over Pisareva. Zamarripa won the first two games of her opening set, but Pisareva responded by winning five of the next six games to take a 5-3 lead. Zamarripa claimed a service break on a deuce point, held serve, forced another service break and held serve again to close out the 7-5 first-set victory.
Pisareva jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the second set, but Zamarripa managed to hold serve on a deuce point, earn a service break and held her serve again to even the set at 4-4. Both players held serve in the next four games, with Zamarripa rallying from down 30-40 while serving at 5-6 to save two set points and force a tiebreaker. In the breaker, Zamarripa built a 2-0 advantage and won five of the first seven points to take a 5-2 lead. The two players traded the next three points to give Zamarripa a 6-4 cushion, and she placed a volley into an open court on the next point to clinch the national title. Zamarripa concluded her freshman season with an 11-2 dual-match singles record, including a 5-0 mark in the NCAA Tournament.
The remaining singles matches featuring No. 49 Collins and Chavatipon were stopped in their respective third sets once Allura Zamarripa clinched the dual-match win. Collins and No. 53 Carmen Corley split their opening two sets on court 2, and Collins held a 2-1 lead in the third at the time of Zamarripa's clinch. After splitting the first two sets on court 4, Guzman jumped out to a 5-0 cushion in the third, but Chavatipon had won back-to-back games to close to within 5-2 when the dual-match was halted.
