By Derby News Network, Last updated Wed May 12 2010 6:10pm

WFTDA Sanctioned | General Interleague | Local Action

WFTDA Sanctioned

2010 Spring Roll Tournament -- See DNN's coverage here.

#5 Rocky Mountain 163, #3 Texas 64 -- In a closed but sanctioned afternoon bout following on Texas' Saturday-night loss to Denver, Rocky Mountain handed Texas their largest defeat to date with an impressive, aggressive performance that had RMRG's lead consistently growing for nearly the entire bout.

The first few jams of this one were evenly matched and saw Texas narrowly leading at 17-11 with about 8 minutes gone, but RMRG dropped the hammer in a major way on the bout's fifth jam. Rocky blockers Psycho Babble, Winona Fighter, Flame n Fury and She Who Cannot Be Named were all over Texas jammer Molotov M Pale from the start to the finish, and RMRG's Frida Beater lapped her four times on the way to a 20-0 jam. Suddenly Rocky Mountain had a 31-17 lead ten minutes into the game, and it was the beginning of a run from which Texas was never able to recover.

Rocky was out to a 53-17 lead about halfway through the opening half, and Texas was unable to capitalize on an important opportunity there, when RMRG jammer Whipity Pow was boxed on a fourth minor but Catholic Cruel Girl, DeRanged, Winona Fighter and Annia Lateher completely stuffed TX jammer Angie-Christ to kill the powerjam at 0-0.

Texas finally scored again on the following jam, but by that point it was a 47-2 run for Rocky Mountain. While the visitors picked up a 5-0 grand slam for phenom Luce Bandit to close the half, they were still down by 44 points at 84-40.

Unlike the previous night's action in Denver, Texas wasn't able to create any second-half magic. The margin stayed almost perfectly even through the first 14 minutes of the half, leaving the score at RMRG 107, Texas 62 with 16:22 to play, but from there on it was practically all Rocky Mountain. Texas was only able to put up 2 more points on a very late-game 2-0 for Olivia Shootin' John. Meanwhile, Rocky Mountain scored 56 points, finishing just a point shy of a triple-digit margin at a 99 point spread.

The final left Texas on only their second losing streak ever, while Rocky Mountain won their 5th game in a row and positioned themselves quite nicely for a May 22 showdown with 2009 WFTDA champs Oly -- who, until the Texas / Rocky game, previously held the record for the biggest defeat of Texas. -- Justice Feelgood Marshall

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#4 Denver 130, #3 Texas 112 -- In the first-ever meeting between hosting Denver and visiting Texas, the home team jumped out to an early lead and held a 67-35 lead at the half; while Texas managed to put together a late comeback and put themselves at the edge of a victory going into the last jam, Denver held them off to take the win in the end.

Denver took a 1-0 lead on the opening jam and did not give the lead back all game long. Penalties became an issue very early in this bout, with Texas losing jammer Bloody Mary in the first jam and both teams finding themselves with two blockers in their respective boxes in the second jam. That second one went 13-0 for Denver's Julie Adams, but soon afterwards the score narrowed to 18-11 Denver.

Unfortunately for Texas, though, lockdown defense from Denver left them blanked on the scoreboard through the next ten minutes, while Denver went on a 37-0 scoring run that ended up being the decisive stretch of the game; at the 13:48 mark, Denver held an imposing 55-11 lead. Texas was able to finally put together a string of lead jammer calls, getting some good performance out of first-year Texas jammer Luce Bandit, and slowly built a 22-4 run to answer, clawing their way back to a 59-33 deficit. At the half, Denver was up 67-35.

The second half featured a very strong start for Denver, who implemented their signature molasses-slow powerjam defense to a 29-2 run over the first six minutes of the half -- their 96-37 lead with 24 minutes left in the game was their largest of the bout. But right when Denver looked to have the game in hand at 99-48, it was Texas' turn to catch fire -- a 27-0 run for the visitors perfectly erased Denver's second-half start and got Texas to within 99-75 with 14:23 on the clock.

Texas kept coming and got within 22 points entering the last ten minutes, 105-83 -- but a major on TX jammer Curvette allowed Denver to again put on their deadly trap for a Heather Juska 20-0 that gave them enough breathing room to survive the rest of the game. It was 125-83 with 8:39 left to play, and although Denver only scored 5 more points over the concluding series, Texas couldn't muster quite enough offense to finish closing the gap. -- Justice Feelgood Marshall

Read DNN's archived boutcast.

#25 Montreal 186, Dutchland 65 -- Montreal continued their increasingly impressive win streak (now at 9 games overall and 7 WFTDA-sanctioned bout) by knocking off an officially higher-ranked team in Dutchland. Going into the bout, Montreal was officially ranked #9 in the region by WFTDA while Dutchland was #8, but Montreal's overwhelming 121 point win showed they're a team that's not done rising.

Dutchland was led by their depth in the pack, particularly Twisted Scissors, Jolene Jawbreaker, Treasure Chest and Hillbilly Hellcat, as they were able to dictate the pace early on. Montreal had played and won their last 8 bouts through strict pack control and often at a much slower pace, so there was some adjustment as Dutchland was determined to put the pedal to the metal and skate the whole bout very quickly. Still, the Skids started with a couple big jams with Iron Wench and Ewan Wotarmy scoring 18 and 15 points respectively, and with 13 minutes left in the first half Montreal was up 53 to 12. Dutchland adapted quickly at this point to better deal with the New Skids heavy defensive blocking, though, and by the half it was a tighter 74-40 for the home team.

The overall fast pace of the bout was very physically demanding and the second half of the game featured an astonishing revolving door of penalties – leaving both teams short a player or three on virtually every jam until the end of the bout. With 15:25 remaining in the second half (and numerous power jams later) it was Montreal 131, Dutchland 47.

Montreal showed a level of conditioning that may have been unexpected in coming out and skating hard and fast enough to keep up with the Dutchland All Stars. Dutchland Jammer Nash Villain, a transfer this season who skated with HARD last year was set to test Montreal with her speed and agility, along with Skid Ho and Twisted Scissors. Their speed was met by Montreal jammers Georgia W Tush, Ewan Wotarmy, Lyn-Dah Kicks and Iron Wench, and a revolving wall of neon blockers, with particularly strong plays by Jess Bandit and No Holds Bard. -- Single Malt Scott & Ewan Wotarmy

Read DNN's archived boutcast.

Dominion 95, DC 77 -- On May 8, the Dominion Derby Girls of Virginia Beach headed north to take on the DC Rollergirls All-Stars in the final bout of their fourth season at the DC Armory. The teams’ two previous meetings had resulted in blowouts — for Dominion in July 2008 (161-48) and for DC in April 2009 (159-35) — but in this outing, the teams proved to be much more closely matched.

Both teams established their go-to strategy early in the bout, with Dominion’s blockers preferring to hang back, coming off the line slowly and ceding the front of the pack to DC. The strategy was effective at first, as Dominion’s jammers were able to break through DC’s front wall while their blockers kept DC jammers tied up in the back. However, the failure of Dominion’s jammers to secure lead jammer status meant DC was able to hold the game virtually scoreless for the first few jams.

The low-scoring trend continued for much of the first half, but DC finally gained an advantage on a couple of Dominion jammer penalties, allowing Free Radical and Sookie Slaughterhouse to post a couple of grand slams each. With about 10 minutes left in the half, DC seemed to have figured out how to get their jammers through the Dominion back wall, leaving Dominion with little recourse when their jammers got caught in DC’s front wall. By halftime, DC had built a comfortable lead with a score of 51-24, and looked poised to easily claim the victory.

But the second half saw Dominion tighten up their back-of-the-pack strategy. They also benefited from a plethora of DC penalties, with DC starting most jams of the second half with at least one blocker in the box. With a less-than-complete pack, DC was unable to deal with the double threat of Dominion’s heavily defensive four-wall and wily jammers, and Dominion racked up 16 points within three jams to narrow their scoring deficit to 10 points.

DC managed to widen the gap again with a couple of well-played jams by Free Radical, but Dominion kept chipping away as DC found themselves facing more penalty trouble. With 8 minutes left to play, DC jammer Lucky Penny was sent to the box, freeing Dominion’s The Ruffian to rack up a double grand slam and give Dominion a 1-point lead, their first of the bout. They built upon that steadily with several hit-and-quit jams; confusion on the track during the last few jams (including a scoreboard malfunction and an illegal procedure major called on Free Radical when she tried to switch jamming duties with Dr. SKabs after the pack whistle had blown) also flustered the DC bench, allowing Dominion to blow the lead open even further and emerge victorious with a final score of 95-77. -- Lady Burn Johnson