2B - April '13, 2009 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cam 2B - April 13, 2009 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Search ingof America S next great individual A lot of sports fans would Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson ately the sport - and all sports, in tell you spring begins were paired on the final day of a general - needs aderce individual with baseball's opening major for the first time sincethey rivalry. Day. In some cities, that might be walked the fairways at Augusta This era has no Ali-Frazier or accurate. National together in 2001. Magic-Bird. Others might point to March Woods is the greatestgolfer We've had Woods vs. all, (at- Madness. The of our time - as almost everyone times Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, calendar tells knows - and has a chance to be Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and others). us this is the the greatest ever. Mickelson is We've had Tom Brady vs. Peyton most accurate the man who should be Woods's Manningi We've had Roger Feder- seasonal mea- toughestcompetitor, though their er vs. Rafael Nadal.' suring stick for rivalry has never fully blossomed. But all of those rivalries are the transition So for a few hoursyesterday, missing one key element: unpre- from winter to we could have seen a rare sight in dictability. For a rivalry to be spring. NATE modern sports: one-on-one cor- great, both competitors need to For me, SANDALS petition between the best in the have a shot at winning on any spring doesn't world and a "great duel" according given day. start until the to the CBS announcers. With Tiger and his train of Masters. It didn't pan out that way. rivals, the advantage always goes I'm not much of a golfer, but The best moment came on their to Woods - yesterday's result there's just something about that second shots on the par-515th beinga rare exception, of course. early-April major in Augusta, Ga. hole. Tiger's shotgave him a great With Brady and Manning, one Maybe it's the soothing music chance at eagle. Phil's chance came is up and the other is down. Rarely that CBS uses. Maybe it's the just moments later and he stuck his dotheir teamsmeet as powerhous- deep green and those perfectly ball between Tiger's and the pin, es. Plus, it's hard fot a individual manicured fairways. Maybe it'sthe as if to say, "Anything you can do, I rivalry to playout in a sport like reverent hush of the crowd before can do better." football. There is too much going every big putt. Then they both missed their on and too many moving parts. It could be any of those things or eagle putts. Federer dominated Nadal for many, many others. So forgive me The final round at Augusta was years, except on the clay courts for writing aboutthe Masters - as exciting as ever, but not because of the French Open. Their rivalry but it's a special event in sports. of the Woods-Mickelson pairing. may have peaked during lastsum- Even if you're not a fan of golf, They both played well, but not well mer's five-setepic in the Wimble- or the Masters, yesterday's final enough to take over the event. don final. But Nadal's recent round could have been epic. It just showed us how desper- dominance suggests that match in riva ry England was just the point where their two paths crossed, rather than merging. For someone who has never seen a great one-on-one rivalry first- hand, those lackluster pairings and yesterday's scene at Augusta are disappointing. There's something special aboutgreatness matching greatness. It's hard to embrace an individualsport where the best in the game is unrivaled. For sports like golf and tennis to regain their popularity in this country, there needs to be a new generation of one-on-one rivals. The same could be said for the NBA, which is still looking for the next Magic vs. Bird. Boxing is made for true rivalries, but the sport isn't honest enough to pro- duce them anymore. Young.sports fans in America probably don't realize how much they're missing by not having great individual rivalries to follow. Those were gone before we started spending our weekend afternoons in front of the TV. If an individual rivalry does blos- som again soon, I just hope our gen- eration will be able to appreciate it. - Sandals can be reached at nsandals@umich.edu, CF FREEDER/Daily Sophomore Jason Jung has now won three straight matches to rebound from an early-season funk. right shp w B g Ten1vio 1 Icg ' Seniors lead Blue in last home match WC rhyt win Jason of almo didn't w Durin more ai tennis to dropping to be exa The w fall off tl But af verines decisive Michiga starting1 he woul "A cou lineup w they had dence," E Jung 1 After victory a weeks a native ha utive sin into thei Ten rank "That mental been m able to been dov Many olverines find included, have a renewed sense of self-assurance after picking up hm with fourth some wins in the past few weeks. Berque said he thinks that might in five matches have been what the team needed to finally get going in the right By MARK BURNS direction. DailySports Writer Michigan's win over Purdue at the Schwartz Tennis Center in Jung endured a stretch West Lafayette was its fourth in st two months where he five matches. in a singles match. The Wolverines had to bat- g that span, the sopho- tle swirling winds and chilly nd the Michigan men's 50-degree temperatures against eam lost confidence while the Boilermakers (1-7 Big Ten, 7-13 g a lot of 4-3 matches: six, overall). Despite the conditions, act. Michigan won five of six singles wheels were beginning to matches and clinched the dou- he bus. bles point for the second straight ter the 49th-ranked Wol- match. defeated Purdue with a "It was tough to get a good read 6-1 victory yesterday, on some balls," sophomore Chris n coach Bruce Berque is Madden said. "A ball you thought to see the team he thought was totally off could come back in d at the beginning of the because of the wind." Madden, like Jung, defeated uple guys at the top of our the weather and continued his ere playingbad tennis and hot streak in singles, winning his I lost much of their confi- eighth straight match at the No. 4 Berque said. position (6-2, 6-3). s one of those players. Berque needs Jung and Madden clinching the Wolverines' to lead the Wolverines (4-4, 10-13), igainst Northwestern two as they play their final conference ggo, the Torrance, Calif., matches against Indiana and Illi- as rattled off three consec- nois before heading into the Big gles wins to pull his team Ten Championships. middle of the cluttered Big "I feel we're playing a lot bet- kings. ter with everyone on the court slump - it was probably playing up to their level," Berque mostly," Jung said. "I've said. "But we're going to need to ore consistent and been bump up the level of play even pick myself up when I've higher aind show even more hun- wn in a match." ger as we head into these last few Wolverine players, Jung matches." Sugiyama and Howard shine in front of friends, family and team ByGILAD BERKOWITZ DailySports Writer Close friends and seniors Lind- sey Howard and ChisakoSugiyama had an emotional final outing at the Varsity Tennis Center on Saturday against Purdue. Both seniors were honored with flowers and a cer- emony prior to the No. 20 Michigan women's tennis team's 5-2 victory against the Boilermakers. During their time as Wolverines, the seniors led the team in different ways. Although she doesn't donthe tra- ditional "C"on her jersey, Howard's contributionsasMichigan's captain exceed a letter on a uniform. Howard has been the Wolver- tennis for two years," Sugiyama ines' captain for the past two years. said. "It was a really good feeling She has accumulated a combined to have someone from my family doubles record of 60-32, including there to watch me play." an astounding 19-10 doubles record With her mother watching from in Big Ten competition. the stands, Sugiyama notched two She and soph- wins, a straight- omore Denise set victory (6-4, Muresan picked tia nt6-3) at No. 2 sin- up a 8-2 doubles M y m omIy hash t gles and an 8-4 win Saturday en victory at No. 1 route to a doubles seen me --- doubles. sweep for Michi- #ri And her per-. gan (7-1 Big Ten, in two years, formance on Sat- 13-5 overall). urday was just Michigan - one glimpse of coach Ronni _her contribution Bernstein said to the Michigan that Howard's women's tennis teammates look up to her and program. Sugiyama's time at Mich- appreciate the energy she brings to igan is epitomized by one word - the court. records. Both seniors' parents attended The Parsippany, N.J., native's the match, and Sugiyama's mother career includes significant hard- even flew all the way from Japan ware: a conference-record six Big for the special occasion. Ten Athlete of the Week awards "My mom hasn't seen me play and the record for all-time singles wins at Michigan. With Sugiyama's routine singles outing Saturday, she collected her 102nd career singles victory. "After the match (on Thursday) it was a relief," Sugiyama said ofthe buildup and hype surrounding her singles match on Thursday against Texas A&M. "I knew how many more Ineededbut I was personally trying not to count how many more I had to get to 101." On Saturday, both seniors pro- vided their usual early sparks by contributing to a sweep in doubles competition that set the tone for Michigan's success. It was the fourth doubles sweep for the team this year. Both fans and Michigan coach Ronni Bernstein acknowledged the seniors' efforts and the legacy the duo will leave on the program. "Our younger kids know what is expected from them, and that is due to our upperclassmen," Bern- stein said. Michigan's forgotten varsity sport: Cheerleading is more fun than you'd think t Michigan, there's a clear pecking order as far as sports go. Football, men's basketball and ice hockey sit atthe top. Non-revenue sports come next. And at the bot- tom sits a team FELIX that few people CARREON even know has On varsity status: cheerleading cheerleading. I wanted to see what it would take to make the team. So after some thought and alot of pressure from junior cheerleader Graham Block, I decided to give it a try. When I arrived at Cliff Keen Arena on March 29 for the cheer- leading team's clinic, my nerves were palpable. It could have been the loud music that filled the arena and the So girls auditioning for the Michigan dance team that had me thinkingI was at the wrong place. When I found the cheerleaders who occupied a part of the arena, I quickly realized there were just two other mentryingout alongside 30 women. If I wasn't nervous before, I most certainly was now. For the men, the clinic was an introduction to stunting, basically learning how to toss andcatch girls. As I stood there in the gymna- sium, a single thought clouded my mind: whatever you do, catch the girl. What couldbe more embar- rassing than dropping a girl on her head Luckily, the members of the team immediately introduced themselves and made me comfortable. "I saw you hit a chair and work- ing on a torch," said LSA junior Kevin Ginsburg, referring to Clementa a novel Jim Martin in a future world where humankind has learned how to thrive in harmony with a flourishing Nature, an oppressed people awakens to its rage. Please visit clementanovel.corn cheerleadingstunts. "Ittook me three days to nail a chair, and I'm now one of five elite stunters on the team:" In a chair, thenmale cheerleader tosses his partner in the air and she sits in the palm of one hand while the other is holding her ankle. A torch is anmore complicated maneuver. The partner steps onto the man's hands while he is ina crouching position. Then he lifts her using just his legs and turns her foot 90 degrees, while the other hand is holding onto to her leg for balance. Instead of lifting my partner up in the air for a torch, she ended up in my arms. It didn't go so well. Besides learningstunts, I real- ized that I didn't know as much about the team as I thought I did. Most students think team only per- forms atfootball games and other sporting events,-but Ilearned the cheerleaders do so much more. - Besides their typical duties at sporting events, the team prepared for several months to compete at the NCA/NDA Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championships in Day- A'S NT& FASTEST SiNCE 1973' o T-S H I T P R N T E R Y * -Expert Screenprinting Embroltdery TEES, SWEATS, SHORTS 1 CAPS, TOTES, APRONS A ult-Color We rum *Printing I'Vour kotehm " Ourjniitoly rintor-Sh1lrt Art EMAI.:DEStGN FOR PROMPTQUOTE' CATALOGU &EMAL liNKAT A dniansTShirtscom A 1002 PONTICTR.,.9 -13670 tona Beach, Fla., last weekend. The competition tested the Wolverines' ability to tumble and stunt with the best units in the country. Michigan placed fifth out of 14 teams in the intermediate coed division. Despite having the second highest subtotal score, the team stumbled through apart of their routine thatresulted in a deduction. "It's the only opportunity they have to represent the University of Michigan as student-athletes," Michigan coach Pam St. John said before the team left for the compe- tition. "The kids are really excited to participate." I was especially impressed with the way the males on the team car- ried themselves. They didn't take themselves too seriously and were just a bunch of guys having fun. In recent years, the team has faced a sharp decline in male turn- out. A few years ago, there were 20 males on the team, which has since dwindled to just 10. Recruit- ing efforts haven't had the desired effect. Last year, the team per- formed stunts on the Diag to gain publicity. The female members have also visited the Intramural Sports Building and the Central Campus Recreation to recruit more men. But for men, being on the team has its benefits. Members have access to the varsity weight room located in Canham Natatorium, as well as access to a personal trainer. Traveling tobowl games and NCAA Tournament games isn't bad, either. The cheerleaders also receive a $150 stipend forbooks each semester. "Every guy has that look on his face," senior Kari Teweles said." 'Are you serious? You want me to be a cheerleader?' And thenthey try it one time and they're hooked. It's addicting,it really is." So, guys, try it out.You just might like it.