Q&A with Houston Barrick

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This week the Virginia men’s tennis hosts the 2010 ITA National Team Indoor Championship at the Boar’s Head Sports Club. The top 16 teams in nation will compete for the title, which the Cavaliers have won the last two years. Virginiasports.com caught up with Cavalier senior Houston Barrick to preview the tournament.

Question: What does it mean to you and the team to be able to play this year’s ITA National Team Indoors in Charlottesville?

Barrick: It is a great honor for our team to have the opportunity to play in such an important tournament here in Charlottesville. This is such a special weekend for not only our team, but for the city as well. The ITA National Indoors is such a fun tournament to compete in no matter where it is located, but to be playing it at home just adds to the overall atmosphere of the opportunity

Question: On paper, this seems like one of the strongest fields in the tournament’s history. How challenging will this weekend be?

Barrick: This does seem to be one of the toughest fields in the history of the tournament. This just shows how strong college tennis is right now. The depth of each team has grown just in the few years I have been here. The results of Somdev Devvarman and John Isner show the strength of college tennis. This weekend will be a tough test for us. We are going to have to be ready to play our best tennis of the year.

Question: Virginia has won the last two titles. What would it mean to be able to win a third consecutive title?

Barrick: Most importantly it would mean so much for us to win this at home. The last two years we have been fortunate enough to win, but they were both on the road. Its different when you have your fans and your family there cheering for you. To win at home would mean so much to us.

Question: You lost at Kentucky last week, your first regular season loss in three years. How do you rebound from that match as you head into the tournament this week?

Barrick: Well the loss at Kentucky was a tough experience for us. Kentucky played well, and we just were not ready to play. We need to learn from what happened and move on. We need to make the loss beneficial in the long run. This loss should make us even hungrier to get better and work harder.

Question: Why should the Charlottesville community come out to the tournament this weekend?

Barrick: This year’s team is a special group of guys and we have an opportunity to win this tournament for the third year in a row. If we could have the support of the community it would really help us in achieving our goal. The fans here in Charlottesville are so great and we would really appreciate any extra support we could get.