Wichita, KS

By PulHitzHer Prize

The Jet City Rollergirls Bombers of Everett, WA, USA (seed #1, WFTDA #42) secured third place in the 2016 International WFTDA Division 2 Playoffs Wichita with a 132-118 victory over the Nashville Rollergirls Music City All Stars of Nashville, TN, USA (seed #3, WFTDA #46).

Photo by Benjamin Mah

Both teams were on the losing end of upsets to lower-seeded teams earlier in the tournament, but as Jet City’s Defensive Coach Nugget said, “We just wanted to come home with hardware.” The third-place finish improves on the squad’s seventh place at the last year’s International WFTDA Division 2 Playoffs Cleveland.

Jet City set the tone of the game with a 19-point power jam by I’llah Smashya in the second jam. The team from Washington set some serious defense in motion and took advantage of four power jams to spend most of the first half on a 52-0 run.

“Our signature defense is two blockers with a brace,” Nugget said. “We were able to send one back for offense, and communicated that offense with our jammers. The points added up quickly.”

Those points mostly came in small increments as Jet City jammers employed a quick call-off strategy while the blocking crew, led by Nasty Nikki Nightstick, Beethoven’s Fist, Sin Gria, The Mexorcist, and Cia WouldNwanna-Bia, shut things down.

Nashville jammer Lady Fury — sporting glittery shorts that read “Check Ya Later,” possibly a nod to her pending roller derby retirement — did string together a few lead jammer status opportunities to end the half and finished with a 10-point jam. But Jet City had a 82-36 halftime lead.

The Bombers picked right back up in the second half, but were scoring fewer points in each jam, and their jammers found themselves in penalty trouble midway through the period.

Nashville, down by as many as 61 points in the game, battled to within 10 following a 14-point power jam by Cruella LaVelle. Cruella, who finished with a game-high 60 points, was assisted by blockers Cole Hearted, Electra Cal, Evil Mendes, and Incredible Hull in that jam.

“From their game last night [loss to the Blue Ridge Rollergirls (seed #7)] we knew they would make a comeback,” Nugget said of Nashville. “So we locked down our defense, went to a six-blocker rotation from about an eight, and just locked it down.”

Jet City would not let the lead get away. Jammers Woah Nellie!, Kat Von Devious and Ivana Hercha returned to scoring four to five points in a jam while the blockers knocked down Nashville’s scoring opportunities.

The game ended with a big Jet City defensive hit: with 17 seconds on the clock, jammer Ivana Hercha jumped out to lead jammer status, Nasty Nikki Nightstick drew a cut track penalty on Nashville jammer Zip Drive, and Ivana called it off to secure the victory.

The Bombers were led by I’llah Smashya with 41 points, Ivana Hercha with 40, Woah Nellie! with 28, and Kat Von Devious with 23. Nashville was led by Cruelle LaVelle, Lady Fury with 53 points, and shored up on defense by retiring blocker Tear O’Bite.

Final Score

Jet City Rollergirls (#1) 132
Nashville Rollergirls (#3) 118