4
8 - Tuesday, April 8, 2008
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
DAYS
N)COUNTDOWN
TO DENVER
Freeze frames
Four individual efforts that made Michigan's run to the Frozen Four possible
SAUER SHOWS BIG-GAME HEROICS I SENIOR SHINES AFTER UGLY INJURY
St. Clair gets
bat going
against Illini
This season, Michigan coach
Red Berenson has often called
goalie Billy Sauer a "rock."
Andnowhere
was the junior's
transition from
unpredictabil-
ity to reliability "
more evident
than during
the Great Lakes
Invitational at SAUER
Joe LouisArena
on Dec. 28-29.
Sauer recorded two shutouts to
seal Michigan's first GLI champi-
onship in 11 years.
His performance added'to his
career-best shutout streak of 166
minutes and 7 seconds, which
started in the second period
of the Wolverines' Dec. 7 win
against Bowling Green.
After making a total of 87 saves
on the weekend, Sauer won tour-
nament MVP honors and was
responsible for keeping Michigan
in the game during a 1-0, double-
overtime championship win over
Michigan Tech.
Following his team's first win
in the tournament, a six-goal
drubbing of Providence, Sauer
said his 50-save performance
came in "one of the easier nights"
he has had to play.
But the next night's 82-minute
thriller showed Sauer was truly
rock-solid under pressure - and
would staythat way all the wayto
the Frozen Four.
- COURTNEYRATKOWIAK
Chad Kolarik is one of the most
dangerous players on any roster
in the nation. On any given night,
the senior can
scorch the nets
for three of
four goals that
make opposing
defenses look
silly.
But no one
expected that
kind of pro- KOLARIK
duction from
Kolarik in the first round of the
CCHA Playoffs.
TheAbington,Pa.nativewasside-
lined with a nasty hamstring injury
for the 26 days leading up to the
best-of-three series with Nebraska-
Omaha. There were questions about
Kolarik's ability to skate smoothly,
let alone carry the team.
With one swift wrister halfway.
through the first period, Kolarik
proved the injury was a thing of the
past. He skated hard towards the
net, pulled up short and dumped the
puck in for Michigan's second goal
of the night.
And the alternate captain wasn't
done yet, notching two more goals
against an overmatched Maverick
defense.
When Kolarik completed his final
hat trick in Yost Ice Arena, a few
unique souvenirs found their way
onto the ice - like the water buffalo
hat and the penguin suit, costumes
worn with pride at every Wolverine
home game this year.
- ANDYREID
PORTER'S FINAL CASE FOR THE HOBEY | COLD YEAR WARMS WITH MVP HONORS
Sophomore goes
perfect from plate,
after slow start
ByRUTH LINCOLN
Daily Sports Writer
If there was an opening in cen-
terfield, sophomdre catcher Roya
St. Clair found it Sunday.
Struggling at the plate through
much of this season, St. Clair
entered Sunday's double-header
against Illinois with the lowest
batting average in the Michigan
lineup (.167).
But it didn't take long for St.
Clair to find her sweet spot.
The Livonia native went 3-for-
3 in the first game against the
Fighting Illini, each time lining
the ball into deep centerfield. In
No. 5 Michigan's 8-0 five-inning
mercy-rule win, St. Clair sthree
base knocks catapulted her out of
the recent slump.
"I've talked to the coach-
ing staff, and they just told me
to keep plugging along and the
hits would come," St. Clair said.
"I just keep swinging, (taking) a
one-pitch focus, and it seemed to
work."
St. Clair continued to connect
in the second half of the double-
header, going 1-for-3 at the plate.
With the Wolverines up 2-0 in
the bottom of the sixth and the
bases loaded, she delivered a
two-run blast to the centerfield
fence to give Michigan a com-
manding 4-0 lead.
"When there's runners on or
there's runners not on, your focus
has to be see-ball, hit-ball," St.
Clair said. "You just have to make
sure the ball's in the strike zone
and do your job at the plate."
When the Wolverines (7-1 Big
Ten, 32-4 overall) take on Cen-
tral Michigan today at Alumni
Field, they hope to maintain the
level of confidence that recent
hitting explosions like St. Clair's
have brought.
"You have to accept as a hit-
ter, you're going to fail more than
you're going to succeed," Michi-
gan coach Carol Hutchins said.
"And if you accept that, you can
move forward because you have
the next at-bat. You always have
another opportunity."
Hutchins emphasized to her
team all season the importance
of controlling its emotions at
the plate and in the field. After a
timid start to the weekend with
a 2-1 loss to Iowa Friday, Michi-
gan rebounded Saturday and car-
ried that momentum Sunday and
came out swinging.
In Michigan's 8-0 win, every
player reached base at least once,
but St. Clair's stellar afternoon
stood out the most because of her
recent slump.
"You can give her direction on
how to do something, but all you
really need is to get on base that
one time, and you feel confident,"
sophomore third baseman Mag-
gie Viefhaus said. "That's what
she did."
Today, the Chippewas (4-1
Mid-American Conference, 12-
11 overall) come to Alumni Field
riding a five-game win streak and
sitting atop its conference stand-
ings in victories.
Even though . Michigan
has been led all season by its
outstanding pitching duo of
sophomore Nikki Nemitz and
freshman Jordan Taylor, the
team's recent hitting speaks vol-
umes. The Wolverines outscored
their opponents 17-2 over the
weekend, guided by Viefhaus
and freshman Dorian Shaw. Even
with recent success at the plate,
Hutchins sees room for improve-
ment against Central Michigan.
"I want to see us keep playing
good defense, keep pitching well,
but I really feel for our hitters,"
Hutchins said. "They're going to
explode one of these days."
4
4
Going into the NCAA East
Regional on a three-game point-
less streak,peoplewerestartingto
talk. Michigan
senior captain
Kevin Porter.
was slumping
at the worst y
possible time. ,
His apparent
Hobey Baker PORTER
Award was in
danger of being broken.
The questions came quickly
after Porter was held off the
scoresheet in the CCHA semifi-
nals and finals. Is he gripping his
stick too tight? Can he handle the
pressure? Why can't he handle
the big stage?
Well, it didn't take long for Por-
terto silencethedoubters.Against
Niagara in the East Regional semi-
finals, he scored three goals over a
22 minute-span. The Northville
native added an empty-net goal
late in the game for a regional-
record four tallies.
In just one night, Porter
answered all the questions. And
in all likelihood, he solidified his
Hobey grasp, all while ensuring
Michigan of its first Tournament
win since 2004.
- NATE SANDALS
It's been a difficult year for
junior Tim Miller.
The forward had his alternate
captain 'A'
taken away
halfway
through the
season and
didn'tfind the
back of the net
for 364 con-
secutive days. MILLER
Rather than
building on
his solid sophomore season, Miller
put up numbers resembling those
from his first year in Ann Arbor.
But when Michigan played at Joe
Louis Arena this year in the CCHA
playoffsandagainstMichiganState,
Miller's stat line looked completely
different. Each of the junior's four
season goals was scored at the
Joe. He also assisted the eventual
conference-championship winner
against Miami (OH) on a beautiful
pass off a low-zone faceoff.
All year, Miller and his struggles
took the backseat to the Wolver-
ines' unexpected success, but at the
Joe, the junior's behind-the-scenes
impact came to the forefront.
And his last game there, Miller
was voted the Most Valuable Play-
er of the CCHA playoffs.
- MICHAEL EISENSTEIN
4
.4
Jayhawks come out on top after overtime win
SAN ANTONIO (AP) - So
patient for 20 years, Kansas had
no problem working an extra five
minutes
to bring KANSAS 75
a long- MEMPHIS 68
awaited
championship back to the heart-
land.
Mario Chalmers hit a 3-pointer
with 2.1 seconds left in regula-
tion to push the game into over-
time, and the Jayhawks grinded
it out from there for a 75-68 vic-
tory Monday night over Memphis
in one of the best title games in
recent memory.
The shot earned Chalmers the
most outstanding player honor.
It was the first title for Kansas
since 1988, when Danny Manning,
now an assistant coach for the
Jayhawks, led them to an upset of
Oklahoma.
The most memorable perfor-
mance in this one came from
freshman Derrick Rose of Mem-
phis, who completely took over
the game in the second half, scor-
ing 14 of his team's 16 points dur-
ing one stretch to lift the Tigers to
a 60-51 lead.
But Kansas (37-3) used the
strategy any smart opponent of
Memphis' would - fouling the
heck out of one of the country's
worst free-throw-shooting teams
- and when Rose and Chris
Douglas-Roberts combined to
miss four of five over the last 1:12,
it left the door open for KU.
Hustling the ball down the
court with 10.8 seconds left and
no timeouts, Sherron Collins
handed off to Chalmers at the top
of the 3-point line and Chalmers
took the shot from the top. It hit
nothing but net and tied the score
at 63.
Robert Dozier missed a desper-
ation shot at the buzzer, and Rose
went limping to the bench, favor-
ing his right leg. Brandon Rush,
Darrell Arthur and Darnell Jack-
son scored the first six points of
overtime to put Kansas ahead 69-
63. Memphis, clearly exhausted,
didn't pull within three again.
Arthur was dominant inside,
finishing with 20 points and 10
rebounds, lots on dunks and easy
lay-ups off lob passes. Chalm-
ers finished with 18 points. Rush
had 12 and Collins had 11 points,
six assists and did a wonderful
job shutting Rose for the first 28
minutes.
Rose wound up with 18 points
in a game that showed how ready
he is for the NBA. He was 3-for-4
from the .line, however, and that
one miss with 10.8 seconds left is
what almost certainly would have
sealed the game and given the
Tigers (38-2) their first title.
Instead, the title goes back to
Lawrence for the third time in the
fabled program's history.
The inventor of the game,
James Naismith, was the first Jay-
hawks coach. It's the school that
made household names of Wilt
Chamberlain,. Manning - and
yes, even North Carolina's. Roy
Williams, the coach who famous-
ly left the Jayhawks, lost to them
in the semifinals, but was, indeed,
in the Kansas cheering section to
watch Bill Self bring the title back
that he never could.
This game was not about coach-
es or sidestories, though. It was
about the game, and what a dandy
it was - a well-needed reprieve
from a more-or-less blah tour-
nament in which 42 of 63 games
were decided by double digits.
This was the first overtime in
the title game since 1997, when
Arizona beat Kentucky 84-79.
.
MEN'S GYMNAST ICS
Rivalry doesn't
tarnish friendship
i
AP PHOTO
Junior MarioChalmers's game-tying shot at the end of regulation earned him the Most
Outstanding Player Award and gave Kansas a National Championship.
Longtime friends,
one a Wolverine and
one a Buckeye, stay
close regardless
By COLT ROSENSWEIG
Daily Sports Writer
STATE COLLEGE - It takes
more than aloo-year-old rivalryto
break the bond between Michigan.
freshman
Thomas Kel-
ley and his KELLEY
best friend,
Ohio State
freshman
Sean Regan.
Forty
minutes
after the YEAR:Freshman
final award
had been HOMETOWN:
presented Libertyvile, lIl.
at the men's Events: Floor,
gymnas- vault, rings,
tics Big Ten parallel bars, high
Champion- bar and pommel
ships, Penn horse
State's Rec
Hall had
nearly emptied. Tear-down crews
had carted away most ofthe equip-
ment and the gymnasts had fil-
tered out.
But Regan, conspicuous in his
scarlet warmups, stuck around
with Kelley's parents, waiting
for the recently honored Big Ten
Freshman of the Year and floor
champion to return from his press
conference.
Two sprained ankles kept Regan
from competing at Big Tens, but he
enjoyed watching his friend com-
pete so successfully. Regan said
the two have "brothers" since age
four, growing up together in Lib-
ertyville, Ill. They both competed
for Buffalo Grove Gymnastics
before college.
"Watching him win Freshman
of the Year was unbelievable,"
Regan said. "I really hoped he was
going to do it, but it didn't hit me
until they called himup there."
Kelley also earned top confer-
ence honors on floor exercise.With
his teammates' cheers thundering
from the stands, Kelley turned ina
beautiful set, sticking nearly all his
landings for a 15.50 score.
As Kelley accepted his award,
the Michigan fan section put on
the best vocal performance of the
night, singing a spot-on rendition
of "The Victors" along with the
gymnasts.
"It set the precedent for other
(event champs) to try and do their
chanting," Kelley said. "They
don't have a good fight song like
'The Victors.' They've got no hand
motions, they've got nothing. So
Michigan is by far the best."
The Freshman ofthe Year award
came at the tail end of the night,
eliciting more noisy outbursts from
the Michigan faithful. Tradition-
ally, the award goes to the fresh-
man with the highest finish in the
all-around finals - butuntilFriday
night, Kelley hadn't competed in
the all-around all season.
Illinois freshman Paul Ruggeri
was the other strong candidate for
the honor, having competed suc-
cessfully in the all-around all sea-
son. But Kelley's fifth-place finish
was the highest of any freshman,
and the tradition continued.
Even as a Buckeye, Regan felt
nothing but joy for his friend'ssuc-
cess.
"I knew he could do it," Regan
said. "To watch him do it was even
better. ... He's worked hard for
where he is, and he deserves every
bit of it."
A tired, happy Kelley finally
returned to the stands after his
press conference and got a big hug
from an equally delighted Regan.
"He's wearing scarlet and gray,
and I'm wearing maize and blue,
but it doesn't get between our
friendship at all," Kelley said.
"We're always there for eachother,
and it's awesome that he's here
waiting 40 minutes. It just shows
that we are best friends."
J FRESHMAN,
SOPHOMORES,
AND JUNIORS...
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