Cleveland, OH

By The Oxford Commakaze

After the Columbia QuadSquad Rollergirls of Columbia, SC, led the Jet City Rollergirls of Everett, Wash., for nearly the entire game, Jet City mounted a slow but undeniable comeback, snatching victory from Columbia by just one point in the very last minute of the game.

Photo by Andrew Keyes

The game was tight from the beginning, with three lead changes in the first four jams. Poison Violet put the first points on the board for Columbia, fighting her way through two fast-moving teams for a quick four points. In a battle of skating styles, Columbia’s tightly maintained formations proved a challenge for Jet City’s more dynamic walls, splitting and reforming with every jammer juke as Columbia started to pull away, inching their way to a 24-5 lead in the first eight minutes.

Every time Jet City capitalized on a two-minute jam or snagged lead jammer, like when Ivana Hercha put nine points up as her blockers kept Columbia jammer Do U Juana tangled in the pack, Columbia was there to close off every opening thanks to devastating hits and clever penalties drawn by inescapable blocker Chuck-Town Bruiser. As Jet City started to come together and earned more lead jammer calls -- but still not enough points to overtake Columbia -- the Columbia jammers consistently stashed the jammer star to draw less attention while snaking through the pack, nearly always forcing a call-off with just one pass. By the end of the first half, in which neither team allowed a point run greater than 9 points until a 14-point jam by Columbia’s Poison Violet in the last jam of the half, Columbia had widened to a fairly comfortable 24-point lead for a halftime score of 70-46.

It looked like the second half was setting up for more of the same. Jet City squandered a lead jammer call for Ivana Hercha by allowing Poison Violet to edge sideways around the pack untouched for four points while Ivana was still tangled up in the pack for a 4-3 point advantage to Columbia in the jam. But that lead jam call turned out to be an omen of things to come for Jet City, which earned lead jammer in 19 of second half’s 23 jams, as a power jam for Eva Derci paid off with 10 more points as Jet City’s blockers pinned Columbia blocker Red to make easy work for their jammer. Jet City continued to slowly but consistently narrow the point differential, with only a 19-point power jam for Joy Recc-Her thanks to capable offense from Sour Hour and Agent Cherry Maim’her proving a true challenge to its comeback early in the second half.

By midway through the second period, Jet City had closed the gap to 8 points, 103-95. Both teams started to go into heavy defense mode as penalties started to pile up for jammers and blockers alike as skaters pushed all out with victory in sight. Columbia managed to stem Jet City’s momentum with a power jam for Do U Juana, in which she managed to push past a formidable wall of Nasty Nikki Nightstick and Star Tariot, and another for Poison Violet just two jams later -- although she traded points with Jet City jammer Eva Derci after going to the box herself -- bringing the score to 133-104 with seven minutes to go.

But those power jams were the last points Columbia would put up for the rest of the game as Jet City upped the ante from a slow burn to an explosive finish, putting up points for six jams in a row thanks to shutdown blocking and an indefatigable jammer core. With just 52 seconds on the clock after Jet City used its last remaining timeout, Eva Derci jumped out for lead jammer and snagged a quick four points before calling the jam from the ground as Poison Violet raced up behind her, regaining the lead 133-134. Columbia jumped in with a time out of its own to manage the clock, freezing it at 30 seconds, but a quick lead jam call for Eva Derci yet again left the game in Jet City’s hands. An early call-off by Eva Derci forced one final jam (again, thanks to Columbia’s careful use of its time outs), but that jam was a power jam thanks to a cut track penalty on Columbia jammer Do U Juana at the end of the previous jam. With just 12 seconds on the clock, Jet City’s Eva Derci, on the jammer line for the third time in a row, snagged lead jam thanks to clever offense by her blockers rolling back off the line to force a no pack call and watched the clock tick down before calling the jam, pulling out a one-point win with a final score of 133-134.

The Jet City Rollergirls will move on to play the St. Chux Derby Chix of O’Fallon, Mo., today at 6 p.m. The Columbia QuadSquad Rollergirls will play Treasure Valley Roller Derby of Boise, ID, for ninth place at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

Final Score

Columbia QuadSquad Rollergirls (3) 133
The Jet City Rollergirls (8) 134