MADISON, WI - On paper, Saturday’s contest between Baltimore’s Charm City All-Stars and Madison’s Dairyland Dolls looked to be a toss-up.   That it was and more. In an emotional see-saw bout where no player gave less than her best, and no jam was taken for granted, it came down to a come from behind final jam effort on the part of Madison’s Mouse to give the home team a dramatic 108-101 victory.

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Baltimore opened the game with a 14-0 opening jam from Joy Collision, but the Dolls scratched back with solid defense to take a 22-19 lead ten minutes in. Nine points from Madison’s Wild Berry Punch on a Charm City jammer penalty in the eighth gave the hosts their first separation at 32-23.   

The rest of the first half was neck and neck, Charm City taking the majority of the leads, 8-3.  Both teams eked out points in close jammer races, and it became evident neither team would have the advantage. The quality of play on both sides was outstanding, with Madison managing to barely hang on to their lead to the intermission. Charm City’s Duchess of Torque finished the half with 5 points to close Madison’s lead to two, 48-46.

The second half was epic, marked by dramatic turns of momentum, penalties, and smart and varied play on both sides.  Joy Collison led off the period for Charm City and tied the game at 48. With the score tied at 54 in the fifth, Rosie the Rioter put down a 15-0 score for Baltimore with Mouse and two other Madison skaters in the box.  It was a killer jam that quieted the Fast Forward Skate Center crowd.

Mouse had found her way to the penalty box due to the first appearance of Charm City “playing the cut.”  Baltimore began to force the Madison jammers out of bounds wide, and then the offending blocker would slow to a crawl. This forced the Madison jammer to stop, or come back in and be hit with a penalty for cutting the track. The strategy seemed unpopular with knowledgeable fans, and downright confusing to a crowd with little understanding of the 3.0 rulebook --  but it was legal.   

After Rosie's jam made it 69-54, Charm City’s confidence was evident the following jam when Joy Collision saluted the small but vocal knot of Baltimore fans on her first scoring pass.  It looked to be a repeat of the previous jam, Charm City with the numbers and Madison jammer Darling Nikki sitting it out after a first-pass cutting-track major, but Joy was sent to the box just as Nikki leapt back to the track to grab four of her own.

With 20 minutes left to play, Madison had plenty of time to get back in the game, but it wouldn’t on the back of star jammer Jenny Knoxville.  Charm City showed respect for Knoxville by muscling her every time she jammed, and Madison’s all-time leading scorer would be limited to only 9 points for the night. But Knoxville proved she was more than just points to her team.   Her open-track jammer-on-jammer defense on Psycho78 in the fourth deprived the Baltimore skater of a grand slam, and Charm City had to settle for four.

With the score 73-61 and 18 minutes left to play, Charm City's Radar Love made her first appearance at the jammer line, but it wouldn't go well for her -- Madison's Wild Berry Punch lapped her twice for a 10-0  to close the gap to 73-71.

In the ninth, Mouse called the jam after passing the trailing Charm City blocker for the two ghost points, apparently before Baltimore’s Flo Shizzle passed the Madison blocker.  The refs saw it differently, and the jam was a 3-3 draw.

Madison’s Mauly Tov laid a huge hit on Charm City’s Holly GoHardly in the 11th that took her skates out from under her, bouncing off the infield on her tailbone -- Holly twisted down to the track and laid still.   After several tense minutes with her closest teammates and the EMTs, Holly got back up on her own, battered but not beaten.

With the Charm City jammer in the box in the 14th, Mouse skated with the advantage and was in her second scoring pass before being hit by Baltimore’s cut play once again. The  jammerless jam rule ended the frame with Mouse scoring eight of what had promised to be a huge turn for the Dairyland Dolls. But Madison had finally regained the lead 84-80.   

Darling Nikki grabbed the star for the hosts.   Testifying to the bout’s building intensity, Nikki saluted the crowd after clearing the pack and grabbing lead.  Nikki laid down nine to Pistol Whip’s three, and the Dolls were up 93-83 with 6:30 to go.

The crowd’s euphoria was short-lived.  Charm City played the cut on Jewels of Denile, and Dolly Rocket skated for a tough 11 points in a clock-killing full two minutes, giving Charm City a one-point lead. The Charm City bench stood and cheered as Joy Collision grabbed lead and four more points on the next jam. Charm City held the momentum and a slim 98-93 lead.

With just under two and half minutes to go, Mouse lined up for Madison and Flo Shizzle for Charm City. To a deafeaning roar, Mouse quickly grabbed the lead. Flo, perhaps sensing the need to chase, was forced out by the final Madison blocker, but stepped back in ahead of the block. It was a cut, and her body language made it clear she knew she was going to the box.   

Mouse was on her own now in front of a frenzied crowd, with Baltimore needing to stop her at almost any cost. She made two scoring passes, and then Charm City played the cut on her again. A victim of the ploy twice already, Mouse knew what was up, and appealed to the refs as the pack came to a stop. The refs waved her back on, and she made one more pass before time ran out on the frame and she fell to her kness on the front stretch, only to be mobbed by her bench.

Flo Shizzle had returned to the track from the box, and her three points were quickly posted.   It would be a few moments longer before Mouse was credited with 15 points, and the Madison victory made official.

Coda

This was not last year’s Nationals final, but it was still a keeper.  Winning was sweet for Madison, but the Charm City skaters knew they had been part of something special. The crowd knew it too. Baltimore lost nothing in the eyes of the Fast Forward audience. For the first time, there was a sense in Madison that this was the real deal, and not a sideshow to the home season.

While the focus is on the jammers, both packs played tough defense, Charm City taking a special interest in Jenny Knoxville and also stymieing Jewels of Denile. In the past, the Dairyland Dolls pack play has been loose, but tonight they demonstrated real teamwork and discipline against the opposing jammers while working for their own scorer.   

This was the first time I’d seen Joy Collision. Until now I was more taken with her name’s musical reference than her potential as a skater.  I won’t make that mistake again. No matter how good the Madison defense, it seemed no obstacle to the fast and elusive Charm City captain.  She led her team with 34 points, followed by Rosie the Rioter with 23, Flo Shizzle with 17, and Dolly Rocket with 16.

Having seen Madison at the East Coast Extravanganza, Charm City was prepared for Madison’s jammer corps.   Although she was rode wide, went to the box twice, and held scoreless on five of eleven jams,  Mouse stepped up when it mattered.  She scored 26 of her 41 points in the second half, and provided the closing drama.   

With Jenny Knoxville and Jewels of Denile getting special attention from the Charm City pack, it fell to others to put points on the board for Madison.  It’s no surprise for Madison fans that Wild Berry Punch and Darling Nikki stepped up with 19 and 28 points respectively.

Madison came in to the bout ranked 17th, Charm City 13th.   Charm City will return to Madison in October for the WFTDA Eastern Regionals, Derby in Dairyland.   The home team will be skating, too.   It’s just a question of where they’ll be seeded.  With WFTDA rankings polled the day before the bout, it will be interesting to see if these two teams receive the rankings they so richly deserve.

Madison is busy closing out July, as their expo squad, Team Unicorn, plays Hammer City in Hamilton, Ontario on the 26th and the all-star Dolls make the short trip to Milwaukee to meet Brewcity on August 2. Charm City's home teams battle it out this Saturday in their regular season closer, as the 2-0 Mobtown Mods and Junkyard Dolls battle for an undefeated record and the #1 playoff seed while the 0-2 Night Terrors and Speed Regime each try to consign the other to the cellar.

UPDATE: From comments, another take on the bout from Madison blog Dane101.

Photos: Menacing Buddha