Sacramento, CA

by Lois Slain

Tampa Roller Derby (7 seed, #26) came out dominant in the first jam of their game against Asheville, NC’s Blue Ridge Rollergirls (10 seed, #41) and never really let up.

Photo by Danforth Johnson

Blue Ridge had their share of moments that demonstrated why they rose to the top of Division 2 in 2013 and edged into the Division 1 Playoffs this year. However, in the end, they fell to the more experienced Tampa 337-74 in Game 2 of the international 2014 WFTDA Division 1 Playoffs in Sacramento, California.

In the first jam, Tampa’s blockers kept the Blue Ridge jammer bottled up in the pack while they put 9 points of their own on the board, a feat they would repeat throughout the first half. Blue Ridge used well-timed offensive blocks to spring their jammers from the pack, but also struggled to hold their ground as they lost both jammers and blockers to the box.

After the first 10 minutes, Tampa held a 53-2 lead. Blue Ridge took a timeout a few minutes later to regroup, but they didn’t see any shift in momentum until the Tampa jammer picked up a backblock penalty, allowing Lady Rider to put up 15 points for Blue Ridge. However, Blue Ridge again had a couple jammer penalties of their own, quickly shifting momentum back to Tampa.

Blue Ridge picked up significantly more penalties than Tampa in the first half, including five jammer penalties and 20 blocker penalties, as compared to two box trips for Tampa jammers and only nine for blockers. As a result, there were often packs of four Tampa blockers versus two for Blue Ridge.

At the halftime, the score was 176 Tampa, 27 Blue Ridge.

Tampa had a more penalty-heavy second half, particularly on jammer penalties, which opened up more scoring opportunities for the Asheville team, although Blue Ridge picked up just as many penalties.

As the second period wore on, Blue Ridge became more successful at getting their jammers out of the pack, scoring more points as a result. They scored 47 points in the second period , improving on their first-half results.

However, the Floridians were always able to quickly tamp down any Blue Ridge momentum with their agile defense and big jams from jammers like Little A and PhDiesel.

The final score was Tampa Roller Derby 337, Blue Ridge Rollergirls 74.

Tampa moves on to play 2 seed Minnesota RollerGirls at 6 pm PDT today. Blue Ridge will continue to compete tomorrow in the consolation bracket.

Final Score:

Tampa Roller Derby 337
Blue Ridge Rollergirls 74