Cleveland, OH

By The Oxford Commakaze

In a game marked with heavy penalties and frequent power jams, 9 seed Oklahoma Victory Dolls of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, were true to their name and forced a victory over 8 seed Jet City Rollergirls of Everett, Washington, in the second game of the 2015 International WFTDA Division 2 Playoffs in Cleveland.

Photo by Steve Jurkovic

Although Jet City raced to an early palindromic lead of 31-13 after capitalizing on three penalties in a row to OKVD jammer Fatal Inferno, OKVD had an opportunity to capitalize on a few power jams of its own. Jam starts were consistently scrummy with heavy defense keeping packs tight, but quick-footed jammers for both teams quickly got the packs rolling and strung out, making for smoother juking and quick passes. OKVD’s tendency to leave a player available to play offense and bridge to keep the pack in play paid off, as well-timed offense from Jennatease and Menace helped spring OKVD’s jammers through JCRG’s diamond-formation defense to chip away at the lead, bringing the game to a 3-point gap of 76-73 just over halfway through the period.

The next jam was the break OKVD needed, and the momentum brake Jet City dreaded: A 19-point jam for Czech 1-2, the largest of the game to that point, pushed OKVD to an 80-92 lead as Jet City’s blockers were sidetracked with springing jammer Ivana Hercha, and later pivot-turned-jammer Sin Gria, from OKVD’s walls. It was far from a secure lead, though, as Jet snatched every opportunity to sneak up the inside or spin around a blocker to bring the game back to one point, 96-97, at the end of the half.

The second half did not get off to the start Jet City wanted as they lost stalwart blocker Star Tariot to her seventh penalty in the first jam of the half, which also saw OKVD start the half with 9 unanswered points, immediately followed by another 14-0 power jam for a score of 120-96. Quick offense by hard-hitting JCRG blocker Nasty Nikki Nightstick helped Chic-Lets Rock put points back on the board for JCRG and gained the team a little bit of confidence, which Ivana Hercha used to put up 13 points immediately after, JCRG’s biggest point run since Jam 5.

JCRG looked like it could continue its momentum in the next jam as a quick star pass allowed Sin Gria to escape the pack shortly after OKVD jammer Czech 1-2’s first pass -- but rather than calling it off after collecting her points, Czech 1-2 continued to run the jam as Sin Gria was helpless behind a devastating wall of recycling OKVD blockers, ultimately going to the box for a low block while Czech 1-2 put up 24 points for a 115-148 lead.

Sin Gria came out of the box in the next jam looking to make up lost ground, jumping on Polly Punching Pocket’s jammer penalty to put up 19 points in the jam to Polly’s 11 for a score of 134-159. Unfortunately for Jet City, those were the last big points the team would put up for several jams as OKVD’s quick pops of offense earned 5 of the next 7 lead jams and held Jet to just 10 points to OKVD’s 31, including a 19-point unanswered jam by Polly Punching Pocket, the game’s leading scorer.

A solid last-minute push again brought the game within reach for Jet City as a two-minute jam caused by revolving one-second jammer penalties saw Eva Derci put up a massive 28-point jam, followed by 8 unanswered points by Whoa Nellie. However, a foul-out in the next-to-last jam for jammer Chic-Lets Rock and the loss of Nasty Nikki Nightstick a few jams before proved to be insurmountable as OKVD started to hit its stride, assisted by superb clock management by its bench to keep its team refreshed. Despite a final 10-3 jam in Jet City’s favor, pushing through to the end, OKVD took the win with a final score of 190-222.

The Oklahoma Victory Dolls will move on to play the Santa Cruz Derby Girls tonight at 6 p.m. The Jet City Rollergirls will play tomorrow at 12 p.m. against the loser of the Columbia QuadSquad Rollergirls-Houston Roller Derby game.

Final Score

Jet City Rollergirls (8) 190
Oklahoma Victory Dolls (9) 222