Cleveland, OH

By Lexistential Crisis

Two years ago, the Columbia QuadSquad Rollergirls All Stars (Seed #3) lost by 81 points to Houston Roller Derby All Stars (Seed #3) at Division 1 Playoffs in Asheville. Last year both teams were at different Division 1 Playoffs, but today they met in Game 3 at the 2015 International WFTDA Division 2 Playoffs Cleveland. The first half of the game was close, much like the two other games this morning, but Houston developed a lead going into the second half. They held and grew that lead to win the game and advance in the tournament.

Photo by Steve Jurkovic

The game started with Columbia’s Poison Violet and Houston’s Death By Chocolate wearing the jammer stars, and this became a familiar match-up throughout the game. The penalty box filled up in the first jam and stayed that way for a the majority of the early jams. This allowed Houston’s jammers Death By Chocolate and Big Bad Voodoo Dollie to take the first lead of the game, and then quickly allowed Poison Violet to answer back and score 9 points and take the lead for Columbia. The score remained close, as both jammers were consistently able to get out of the pack and limit each other’s scoring.

Columbia maintained a lead at the 15-minute mark with a score of 52 over Houston’s 45. They kept the lead until Big Bad Voodoo Dollie scored 18 points on a power jam and gave Houston a lead of 78-72. Houston added another 39 points over the final three jams of the half. Speed O’ was responsible for 28 of those points in her first time jamming while her teammates Betty Watchett, 2x Force, Patti Painz, and Hot Assets held back Columbia’s jammer with dynamic walls. At the half the score was 74-117 in favor of Houston.

Houston continued to build their lead in the beginning of the second half. After six jams Houston had a lead of 154-86. With 21 minutes left in the game, Houston’s jammer Bustin’ Beaver committed two penalties in one jam. Columbia’s Joy Recc-Her scored 15 points with some help from blocker Agent Cherry Maim’her, and Poison Violet continued to take advantage of the power jam when she scored 23 in the following jam. After a few more close jams, the score was 130 for Columbia and 166 for Houston. Columbia blockers Chuck-Town Bruiser, Sour Hour, Rox Ann Stones, and Meg Riot used braced walls and big hits to hold back Houston’s jammers. Their defense prevented Houston from significantly growing their lead until the final jam of the game. Death By Chocolate ended the game with a 19-point jam to bring the final score to 163-210.

In their games leading up to this tournament Columbia, had the highest lead jammer percentage of any team in Cleveland. Houston’s jammers Big Bad Voodoo Dollie and Death By Chocolate had the highest lead jammer percentages in the game with 66.7% and 61.5%. Big Bad Voodoo Dollie was also the highest scoring jammer for Houston with 73 points while Poison Violet was the highest scoring jammer of the game with 75 points. Houston moves on to play St. Chux or Kansas City in Game 12 tomorrow at 8:00 PM Eastern and Columbia will play Jet City tomorrow at noon.

Final Score

Columbia QuadSquad (3) 163
Houston Roller Derby (6) 210