Madison (#10) Surprises Cincinnati (#7) with 195-point Win

by Vile Love It

The bleacher seats of the Niagara Falls Conference & Event Center began to fill up during bout number two as the Mad Rollin’ Dolls Dairyland Dolls (#10) and the Cincinnati Rollergirls Black Sheep (#7) took to the track. From the first jam, it appeared that someone forgot to tell Madison they were the tenth seed. They took over and held on throughout the game, surprising many in the crowd as well as Cincinnati.

These two teams didn't meet last year at the North Central Region Playoffs and have not played any sanctioned games against each other this year. This lack of familiarity seemed to have a greater affect on Cincinnati as it took them six jams to put up any points. By then, Madison already had 31 points on the board.

Photo by Bob Dunnell

Both teams played a fast game, diving for the jammer line at every start. Cincinnati's strategy was more defensive and they seemed caught off guard by Madison's aggressive game play, and struggled throughout the game to gain momentum. In the first half, Madison scored 133 points to Cincinnati's 38 points.

During the game, Madison racked up ten high scoring jams with two 30-point and two 29-point jams as well as a 24- and a 25-point jam. Some were power jams, and others were simply evidence of pack control and superior transitioning from offense to defense when Madison was able to both shut down Cincinnati's jammer and assist their own jammer.

“We've been focusing a lot on the transitions between offense and defense lately. We also try to emphasize our strengths as well as exploit any weaknesses we find in our opponent,” said Mouse of Madison. “This game ended up being a really good combination of those for us.”

Penalties told the tale as well. Cincinnati racked up 41 box minutes compared to Madison's 27 penalty minutes, and Cincinnati had twice as many jammer penalties as Madison (12 for Cincinnati, six for Madison).

“We expected to win so we are obviously disappointed,” said Hannah Barbaric of Cincinnati, “but we made a lot of mental errors, particularly our jammers, which sent them to the box. Madison played really smart and we didn't get our stuff together soon enough. Madison was able to capitalize on the power jams and transitioned from defense to offense and back again very quickly.”

Cincinnati attempted to adjust their game play in the second half and was able to score more points, but they couldn't overcome Madison's control and commanding lead.

Mad Rollin' Dolls (#10) 286
Cincinnati Rollergirls (#7) 91