Jacksonville, FL

By Whacks Poetic

The seventh place game at the 2015 International WFTDA D1 Playoffs Jacksonville saw Steel City Roller Derby from Pittsburgh, PA, USA looking to improve their ranking coming into the tournament in eighth while the Charlottesville Derby Dames from Charlottesville, VA, USA were looking for their second upset having already beaten seventh seed Glasgow Roller Derby in their opening game on Friday. Steel City took seventh in an impressive performance by the long time playoff veterans, 281-134.

Photo by Ken LeBleu

The game started with the teams feeling each other out with six of the first seven jams running over a minute long and having fast packs. Leanne Groll looked to be playing some of the best derby of her career having put up a 29-0 jam to start the game. After the first ten minutes, the score was 69-31 in favor of Steel and both teams settled into the shorter single pass jam patterns typical of modern day roller derby. Steel was looking a bit tired though with jammers taking their time getting to the back of the pack and blockers missing hits that they wouldn't have on Friday. Their jammers were engaging in defense regularly to kill clock time and slow jams down. Charlottesville, in an attempt to figure out their opponents, put Forty Ounce Bounce on the jammer line, she managed a 9-point pass which started a 5-jam streak for Charlottesville bringing the score to 109-64 with less than five minutes left in the period.

Coach Dad of Steel City said, "We lost it a bit in the middle of the half. While we were feeling great, we definitely realized we needed to clean up our act a bit." Several more single pass jams would finish out the half 122-66 for Steel.

Photo by Ryan Quick

The second half saw Groll continue her impressive jamming, picking up lead and five points in the first jam. Coach Dad "Leanne's performance in this tournament has been really standout, particularly because she's been nursing an injury and we've run three jammers the entire time." In an attempt to ignite the flame, Charlottesville put out Forty Ounce Bounce in a regular jammer rotation. It did not have the desired result with the first time Snot Rocket Science picking up a 12 point pass while the Charlottesville jammer wrestled with the Steel blockers. It appeared the Virginians were looking deep into their jammer bench trying Tippi Headlock and MaLuvicent as jammers as well. MaLuvicent found herself on a powerjam with five minutes left in the game, Leanne Groll having picked up her first penalty of the game, a 9-0 jam for Charlottesville brought the score to 257-111. Until the final jam, Steel stuck with their three jammer rotation. However, the last jam of the game saw LaZorra don the star for the Pennsylvanians while Machete sat in the box for Charlottesville. LaZorra would grab lead and 8 points while Machete passed the star to Charlottesville standout Miller-Miller before calling the jam and clinching seventh place for her team, 281-134. Coach Dad upon Steel's jammer choices, "We were missing a couple of our main jammers, one is with child and another got into med school and couldn't make our practice schedule so we knew going into the tournament that it would be a three jammer rotation, but all our pivots can jam and provide relief when necessary. LaZorra is an up and coming jammer that we're hoping will be a main jammer in the next season."

FINAL SCORE

Steel City Roller Derby (#8) 281
Charlottesville Derby Dames (#10) 134