Oly (#4) Defeats Rocky Mountain (#5)

By Lois Slain

This year’s seeding meant that, for the first time in years, longtime rivals the Oly Rollers (#4), of Olympia, and Rocky Mountain Rollergirls (#5), of Denver, could not both advance to the WFTDA Championships. With both teams fielding very different rosters than 2011, due to transfers and retirements, it was anyone’s guess about how this match-up would end.

Photo by Masonite Burn Photography

Despite the controversy surrounding the roster changes,“[our focus] was to play hard, skate hard and that’s what we did,” said Oly’s Hockey Honey.

Oly started off strong, putting up 30 unanswered points in two jams while Rocky’s jammers warmed up the penalty box seats, and for a while it looked like they might run away with it. However, when Rocky had their penalties under control, it was a battle of heavy defense that put the teams more on even footing.

Capitalizing on momentum from a power jam, Rocky began closing the gap toward the end of the first period and brought the score to 78 Oly 48 Rocky at halftime, keeping a win very much within their reach.

“We were controlling the controllables, which is that we have our team that has been playing together all year,” said Rocky Mountain’s Fiona Grapple. “We just focused on what we’ve been working on all year, which is good communication, good tight walls, good transitioning – the things that every team works on.”

At the start of the second period, Rocky came out with guns blazing and began inching closer to Oly with heavy defensive efforts. But, it wouldn’t take long before penalties again became a problem for the Rocky skaters, leaving light packs and often seeing jammers in the box. After back-to-back power jams, Oly took their margin back up to 69 points over Rocky.

When the penalty fog cleared again, Rocky’s blockers were able to contain Oly’s jammers while allowing their own jammers to chip away, but it proved to be too little, too late.

Oly Rollers 157
Rocky Mountain Rollergirls 92

Oly advances to play in the semifinals on Saturday at 2 p.m. PDT.

Player interviews by Eva Menace and Killer Vee.