DC Takes on Dutchland & Harrisburg

By Justice Feelgood Marshall, Last updated Fri Mar 12 2010 5:50pm

LANCASTER, PA -- One week after a tough loss to Montreal at home, the DC Rollergirls hope to make their early case for a tournament invite as they tackle two other teams also on the bubble -- Lancaster, PA's Dutchland Rollers on Saturday and the Harrisburg Area Roller Derby on Sunday.

Last year, DC backed into Eastern Regionals -- only the top ten teams from the region got an invite, but #11th-ranked DC was able to enter with a #9 seed when higher-ranked Harrisburg and Maine declined their invites. Dutchland would have been the other team entering due to the dropouts, but also had to decline their invite -- that left the #10 slot open for Dominion.

This year, though, Montreal has scrambled the lower rungs with a strong showing last weekend. Currently, DC is ranked #9, Harrisburg #10, Connecticut #11 and Dutchland #12 -- but #13 Montreal will likely take them all down a notch in the upcoming 2nd quarter rankings, as they solidly defeated Connecticut on Friday (151-93) and DC on Saturday (106-56). Harrisburg and Dutchland thus have the opportunity to muscle their way into the top 10 this weekend, while DC would seriously bolster their chances for remaining there if they can win both games.

DC will be looking for their first win of 2010 -- in addition to the bout against Montreal, they lost to Steel City 157-69 in February.

Dutchland is looking strong in WFTDA play, having won their last 4 games dating back to June 2009 -- although they were all against fairly lowly-ranked competition in Long Island, Dominion, River City and Suburbia.

DC and Dutchland have met twice before, and both were extremely narrow wins for DC -- 63-62 in November 2007 and 90-83 in March 2009. From a triangulation standpoint, however, it's worth noting that Dutchland and Montreal both easily handled shared opponent Suburbia recently -- Dutchland won by 94 last month, while a shorthanded Montreal crew playing their third game in three days won by 66 last weekend. On paper, that might trump DC's 2-0 record against Dutchland.

Harrisburg is a particularly interesting question mark at the moment. Based on their record last year, they might be expected to dominate -- they blasted both DC and Montreal by over 100 points each, and even defeated increasingly impressive Steel City in a 178-175 shootout in June 2009. However, they've suffered significant roster losses since then, with much of their top talent heading to nearby leagues -- Renegade Raven and Nash Villain went to Dutchland while Holden Grudges and Dosa Badazz went to Charm City. With Harrisburg not having played a public sanctioned bout since that June 2009 one against Steel City, it remains to be seen if they still have the firepower to stay top-10 in the East.

All four teams -- Montreal, DC, Harrisburg and Dutchland -- will still have the opportunity to further make their cases before the tournament rankings come out in July, with multiple bouts against closely-ranked Eastern opponents, but this weekend should provide a chance for one league to take the early inside line in the scramble for Regionals.

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