Jacksonville, FL

By Lexistential Crisis

After a tough loss to Jacksonville on the first day of the tournament, the Detroit Derby Girls (Seed #6) started the second day of the 2015 International WFTDA Division 1 Playoffs Jacksonville with a win over the Pikes Peak Derby Dames (Seed #9). Pikes Peak came close to taking the lead a few times in the first half, but Detroit controlled the pack and lead jammer status for most of the game. This gave Detroit more opportunities to score, especially in the second half.

Photo by Ryan Quick

It seemed likely that Detroit would dominate the first half after they took advantage of a small pack and a penalty on Pikes Peak’s jammer in the 7th jam. Detroit’s Feta Sleeze earned lead jammer status and kept the jam running while Trick Pony was also scoring. This paid off for Detroit as Feta Sleeze scored 33 points and gave Detroit their largest lead of the first half with a score of 54-11. Pikes Peak responded by dominating the next five jams. They earned lead jammer status, held Detroit scoreless, and added 29 points in those five jams. Halfway through the second half the score was 54-40; Detroit’s lead was cut down to only 14 points. Detroit maintained a lead for the rest of the half, and Pikes Peak stayed around 15-20 points behind them. At halftime the score was 96-79 in favor of Detroit.

Detroit slowly built up their lead during the first half of the second period. In the 5th and 6th jams Detroit’s jammers Swift Justice and Feta Sleeze committed penalties and gave Pikes Peak an opportunity to add more points to their score. Unfortunately Pikes Peak’s jammer Pretty Penny was limited to only two points in the 5th jam after her blockers stood back and let her attempt to push through a tough Detroit wall. Pikes Peak didn’t choose to play offense for srs biznis or pivot-turned-jammer Brenda Lee in the following jam either. They did successfully add 12 points, bringing Pikes Peak to 100, but Feta Sleeze breezed through the pack for 13 points, bringing Detroit’s score to 124. A few jams later Pikes Peak suffered two jammer penalties, but Detroit didn’t utilize much offensive blocking to help their jammers escape the pack either. Well-timed star passes by Pretty Penny and Brenda Lee also helped to limit Detroit’s scoring impact in those jams.

Photo by Joe Mac

With about 14 minutes left in the game, Detroit held a lead of 146-110. They progressively grew this lead through the rest of the game by building solid walls and exploiting holes in Pikes Peak’s walls. Detroit’s jammers went to the box three more times in the game while Pikes Peak’s jammers remained on the track. However, Pikes Peak had trouble scoring points as Detroit’s blockers were able to control the pack and they outscored Pikes Peak in two of the three power jams. When Pikes Peak provided offensive support to Pepper Slay she was able to successfully earn lead jammer status and score 10 points while Detroit wasn’t able to score at all. To end the game, Detroit maintained control of the pack and increased their lead to 64 points, the largest of the game. The final score was 215-151 for Detroit. 120 of those 215 points were scored by Feta Sleeze, who also earned lead 87.5% of the time. Detroit will play Charlottesville later today at 4:00pm Eastern. Pikes Peak will play Glasgow or Tampa in the first game tomorrow at 10:00am for 9th Place.

FINAL SCORE

Pikes Peak Derby Dames (#9) 151
Detroit Derby Girls (#6) 215