Evansville, IN

By Ninja Sass'em

In game 4, of Day 1, at the international WFTDA Division 1 Playoffs in Evansville, Indiana, the London Brawling of the London Rollergirls (#1 seed, rank #3) from London, England, used a shut-down defense to easily overcome the Nashville Rollergirls’ Music City All-Stars (#8 seed, rank #31) from Nashville, Tennessee, 408 to 57.

Photo by Steve Jurkovic

London dominated out the gate, getting lead jammer in almost every jam that they started on the track. Nashville’s Big Banger took lead over a boxed Lexi Lightspeed, but was stuffed by Brawling and was unable to put any points on the board.

Chelsea Dagger, who had been boxed on her first two jammer rotations, got lead over Kamikaze Kitten, who started in the penalty box to award Nashville their first 5 points during jam 10.

A pattern of star passes for Nashville emerged when their jammer could not break the pack. However, even this strategy failed to put points on the board until during the final jam of the first half when Four-Leaf Roller, who started jam 17 in the box, capitalized on a rare Stephanie Mainey back block to bring Nashville's score to 10.

"We wanted to stop the bleeding," Four-Leaf Roller said, explaining the star pass strategy.

The halftime score disparity of 172-10 absolutely did not reflect how hard Nashville blockers had been working. Electra Cal, Tear O'Bite, and Dani Doom managed to always put a body on the Brawling jammers and allowed very few easy scoring passes. Heavy Nashville blocker penalties showed just how aggressive the ladies in white and blue were playing as they carried more than twice the penalties into the second half as London did.

"I was delighted that I had a clean sheet," said London's Raw Heidi, who had a penalty-free game.

Awareness became the key, as a tired Nashville in the 2nd period was caught off guard by lightning-fast jammers blasting through the pack while they focused on a more laissez-faire offense.

Jam 3 of the second half saw an attempted star pass to Lady Fury. An illegal procedure penalty followed by an insubordination for failure to leave the track meant that Fury should have served as a blocker, but she wore the star panty the entire time. After 20 points put up by Lexi Lightspeed, the jam ended. Nashville, still unsure of Lady Fury's role, failed to field a jammer and Stephanie Mainey was able to continue the mistaken power jam when she took the line to extend the lead before a star pass to Juke Box brought their combined point total to 45.

A 3-wall of defense proved time and time again that that was all Brawling needed to shut down Nashville's jammers, while they routinely sent out an offensive blocker to clear for their own jammer.

Jam 10 of the second half showed a late-game rally by Nashville as Maulin Monroe brought in fresh legs to the jammer rotation. London’s Rogue Runner started in the box and blocker after London blocker committed penalties to clear the track for Maulin, who put up more points in 1 jam than Nashville had previously the entire game. Twenty-nine points brought the score to 353 to 57.

"The large amount of London penalties created a perfect storm, allowing Maulin to make several scoring passes," Four-Leaf Roller said.

It was the London Brawling show after that as both Banger and Maulin were boxed while Mainey answered with a 22-point power jam and then Kamikaze Kitten went on a 25-point run.

With a final score of 408-57, London advances to play the winner of Jacksonville vs. Ohio, while Nashville will move into the consolation bracket.