Charleston, WV

By The Oxford Commakaze

The international 2014 WFTDA Division 1 Playoffs Charleston rolled out with a 242-110 victory for the Mad Rollin’ Dolls (7 seed, ranked 29) of Madison, Wisc., over SoCal Derby (10 seed, ranked 38) of San Diego, Calif, despite a neck-and-neck first half that never saw the score difference more than 30 points wide. In the end, penalty trouble for SoCal opened the door for the Mad Rollin’ Dolls to break the score wide open, outscoring Socal 3:1 in the second half.

Photo by Tyler Shaw

Although these teams were originally scheduled to play in the second bout of the day, flight issues for the Jet City Rollergirls forced a re-arranged schedule that saw the Mad Rollin’ Dolls vs. SoCal game to the first game of the day. The edge-of-the-seat first half started with a rough scramble for lead jammer, which Magic Missile won after nearly 40 seconds with both jammers caught in the scrum. But almost immediately after, the Mad Rollin’ Dolls’ Blanche Devereauxxx forced a track cut on SoCal jammer Buns of Fury, allowing Magic Missile to put up 10 points before calling while the SoCal jammer remained in the box. That began a series of jammer penalties for SoCal in the first three jams, bringing the score to a 30-10 lead.

But SoCal started turning the tide, starting with SoCal’s Ivanna S. Pankin stealing two points after lead jammer Ladie Who-Ha of the Mad Rollin’ Dolls got caught by a wall of SoCal blockers at the front of the pack before walling. SoCal turned the score in Jam 6 when vicious recycling by their blockers held Mad Rollin’ Dolls jammer Mouse at the back and ultimately drew a track cut on her, while SoCal jammer Kung POW Tina hopped by unscathed, bringing the score to 40-35 SoCal.

After taking advantage of the Mad Rollin’ Dolls’ penalty trouble and holding them scoreless for five jams, SoCal’s momentum slowed after jammer Sk8er-Kinney tried to hit Mad Rollin’ Dolls jammer Splatter Alice off the line and ended up in the penalty box for a back block. The Mad Rollin’ Dolls slowly chipped away at SoCal’s lead for the rest of the half, overtaking them in Jam 15 and getting lead jammer in 8 of the 10 next jams. At halftime, the Mad Rollin’ Dolls led Socal 97-67.

“That little bit of the dry spell was because of penalties. Honestly, getting our game changed a little bit earlier was a little disconcerting -- we like to have plans, so we just had to adjust when we got that point of that dry spells of penalties,” said Mad Rollin’ Dolls co-captain Hello Sailor.

SoCal got off to a good start in the second half, going 8-0 in the first two jam as blockers Sk8er-Kinney and Ortega Chile’s two-wall at the front of the pack made things difficult for Mad Rollin’ Dolls jammer Splatter Alice. However, a scoring glut for the Mad Rollin’ Dolls heightened the lead as they held SoCal to just 17 points over the next 14 jams, widening the score to 179-94 in that time thanks to stellar blocking by Allie Gator and soul-crushing hits by Madison as jammer after jammer for SoCal would nearly escape the pack, but get sucked back in right before breaking out. Jammer Buns of Fury for SoCal put up 8 points in Jam 17 of the second half, the first points for SoCal in 10 jams, after quick offense by her blockers while Marcy Slayground stayed back to hold Mad Rollin’ Dolls jammer Splatter Alice at bay. However, penalty trouble left SoCal’s blockers outnumbered 4-2 at the start of the next jam, and a fast pivot line start couldn’t hold Mad Rollin’ Dolls jammer Ladie Who-Ha back, especially once SoCal blockers forced a track cut on SoCal jammer Kung POW Tina, bringing the score to 211-102.

Swarming offense by the Mad Rollin’ Dolls and fancy footwork by Mouse and Splatter Alice widened the lead as SoCal tried to stop the bleeding. In the final jam, SoCal did get a chance to put a few more points on the board when jammer Kung POW Tina escaped the pack first. However, she was not lead jammer, which instead went to Mouse when she escaped the pack half a lap later. After trading points for two passes, Mouse called the jam off with just a few seconds left on the clock. SoCal had no remaining timeouts with which to stop the clock, leaving the final score 242-110.

“I think we focused on a game-by-game strategy, and after doing our homework and research on SoCal, we felt confident going in and felt happy to execute what we planned,” said Hello Sailor. “I think SoCal has a great offensive plan, and for us it was really honing in on our defensive strategy and focusing on speed control and focusing on keeping our walls together, looking past what their offense was going to throw at us.”

The Mad Rollin’ Dolls will move on to play Victorian Roller Derby League at 6 p.m. EDT on Friday. SoCal Derby will play Saturday at noon against an opponent to be determined at tonight’s game between the Atlanta Rollergirls and the Naptown Rollergirls.

Final Score

(7) Mad Rollin' Dolls 242
(10) SoCal Derby 110