Kalamazoo, MI

Queen City prevails over Suburbia

By Vile Love It

In the Empire state showdown for ninth place, the Suburbia Roller Derby (seed 10, ranked 65) from Westchester, New York, and the Queen City Roller Girls (seed 6, ranked 54) from Buffalo, New York, tore up the early morning track. The teams last met in March of 2012 in a nail-biter of a game when Queen City came out with the win, but only by 6 points. This game was equally as nerve-wracking.

“We are so happy to have the opportunity to play in this tournament. Our goal all year was to make it to the Division 2 Playoffs,” said Suburbia’s Vixen Von Bruizen (#1057). “We were seeded 13 before coming in and felt that any place we could step into was going to show the WFTDA and all of our competitors what we are made of and that we are ready to compete. We are just excited to be part of roller derby history.”

The play-by-play of this game would be repetitive because the Queen City jammers did what seemed like an endless rotation in and out of the box. Their jammers went to the box 13 times over the entire bout; Suburbia’s jammers only sat 6 times.

Suburbia was able to pack on the points when they were on the power jam, but Queen City was able to shut them down when they had equal advantage and were able to take full advantage of the power jams they did catch.

Suburbia frequently had the pack advantage, too. Queen City had one player foul out and were given 46 penalties (including the 13 jammer penalties). Suburbia wasn’t too far behind though; they collected 38 penalties (including the 6 jammer penalties).

At the half, the score was 116-112 with Suburbia holding a slight lead.

Queen City struggled right off the bat when their jammer LiBRAWLian (#622) visited in the box three times in a row, earning only 2 points during her brief stint on the track. Meanwhile, Suburbia grabbed 45 points. At the end of it, the score was 153-114 in Suburbia’s favor and it looked like the team was going to pull away and take the win.

But it was still early in the period and Queen City’s LiBRAWLian wasn’t done just yet. She wasn’t finished scoring and, unfortunately, wasn’t done with the penalty box yet either. Over the rest of the period LiBRAWLian scored 93 points (out of her total points of 144), making up for those trips to the box.

With less than 5 minutes left in the bout, Suburbia’s Lauren Forcer (#50) hit the box leaving LiBRAWLian on the floor for a power jam. Queen City was able to pull even and then ahead and earned their first lead since the second jam of the game. It was a 7-point game with only a few jams left.

Both teams scrambled hard and when teams scramble they tend to make mistakes. And Queen City’s LiBRAWLian made one in the last jam and headed to the box. During that jam she had some company in the box. At one point in the jam, three of Queen City’s blockers sat in the box. Suburbia’s blockers were able to slow the pack down and Lauren Forcer was able to collect 20 points. Unfortunately for Suburbia, they fell short and when the clock ran out Queen City had held onto the lead.

“We worked really hard all year to get here. There is no quit in our players, either in practice or during a bout, so although we’re disappointed in the scores of the earlier games, it’s great to leave on a high note,” said Queen City Co-Coach Mr. T. “Suburbia is always a great team to play. They came out hard and strong and were very composed.”

Final Score

(6) Queen City Roller Girls 233
Suburbia 221