(13) Detroit Takes on (5) Rocky Mountain

By Justice Feelgood Marshall, Last updated Fri Dec 4 2009 9:38am

DENVER, CO -- The derby world didn't have to wait very long into the 2010 WFTDA season for its first meeting of Nationals-level teams -- in fact, it didn't even have to wait until 2010. This Saturday in Denver, the suddenly elite-level Rocky Mountain Roller Girls defend the turf on which they claimed 2nd place at Western Regionals as the Detroit Derby Girls come into the Bladium.

Detroit is coming off a whiplash-inducing last couple of games -- in October, they crushed Madison, the #2 team from the North Central tournament, by 199 points, but a month later at Nationals Detroit was crushed in turn by #2 East Gotham by 149 points. Their matchup with Rocky Mountain here may help to determine which one of those results -- if either -- was the outlier.

Rocky Mountain, of course, continued on from their surprising turn at Westerns to go all the way to the third-place bout of 2009 Nationals, where they were consigned to 4th place overall by their local rivals the Denver Roller Dolls. Their year has completely turned around in just the last two months: before the beginning of Western Regionals, they were 2-3 and since then they are 5-2.

Both teams are putting out their A list with this one; Rocky Mountain's 14-player roster is identical to the one that took down Philly at Nationals while Detroit's roster is nearly identical to the crew they put up against Gotham. The exceptions are Rock Candy and Devil Kitty sitting it out; Del Bomber steps in, but that leaves Detroit with a total of 13 players for the party, one short of a full squad.

These teams haven't had any common opponents since RMRG's recent blossoming, so it's hard to compare them by past results (although RMRG lost to Boston back in May, 125-87, while Detroit beat Boston in August 108-84.) Both teams have a rep for particularly hard hitting play -- RMRG's Annia LateHer and Assaultin' Pepa match up well with power blockers Cookie Rumble and Black Eyed Skeez from the Detroit side, and both teams have jammers that can put their shoulders down and make their own holes -- Psycho Babble and Deranged for RMRG and Sarah Hipel and Racer McChaseher for Detroit.

However, Detroit will have to contend with the notorious mile-high altitude of Denver, which seemed to have an endurance-sapping effect on some of the teams at Regionals -- if this game is as physical as it looks like it could be on paper, that could bite Detroit as the game winds down.

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